


Be together but alone as the need for it has grown

by TheLonesomeWriter



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: 1920, 1960-1980, 2012-2017, Abuse, Alternate Universe - Historical, And born a ghost, Angst with a Happy Ending, Because of Reasons, Blood and Gore, But those haven't been invented untill like the 1960s or somthing, DAnny is born in england 1900, Dan Phantom makes a cameo!!!, Danny can help ghosts cross over to the other side, Danny sings and play the piano, Danny's seventeen so is it still underage?, Evil Danny Phantom, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Gay Sex, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I haven't seen half the places I'm describing, I need to stop hurting Danny, I want Danny to call Vlad a fruitloop, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Music, Other, Rape/Non-con Elements, Redemption, Sojourn's journal, Sorry Not Sorry, Team Phantom generation 1 and 2, The Unworld and Elsewhereness, The pain of time accuracy is real, Timespan - 1900 to 2017, Violence, Vlad that's not how you show love, XD, from enemies to friends, historians will cry, ish, its becoming a habit, overprotective Dani, sorta..., to consensual lovers, to dark lovers, to enemies, to friends, to hate sex, to lovers again, to neutrals, to one sided lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2018-10-18 14:41:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 51
Words: 355,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10619064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLonesomeWriter/pseuds/TheLonesomeWriter
Summary: "My story has no meaning, Mr. Officer."“Try me – I have heard a thing or two in here.”“Not this,” Danny assured.“Try me.”It's a normal Friday night when the arrested Daniel Jack Fenton finds himself in the hands of the everyday cop; Nichols. What starts out as just another night of work for the officer, soon evolves into something more, as the man's view on the world and his own mortality is turned upside down by the story this halfa has to tell. It's a story of how Danny's parents tampered with powers they shouldn't have. A story of how he met another halfa and forever lost control of his own destiny. A story of friendship, love, hurt, regret and pain.A story of his life."It all started with a ghost portal."





	1. The officer says, “try me” and Danny might just do that

**Author's Note:**

> Hey pompous pep hungry people!  
> This fic has been lying on my laptop like forever and I'm finally close to have the ending done - it's going to be insanely long just like the rest of the fics I'm making right now - and it's seriously becoming a problem for me  
> I can't stay under 10 chapters of anything and I don't know why - it's like I have to drag things out or something  
> If you feel like some of the characters actions or way of thinking gets to OOC, it's because I'm trying to figure out how they would have done and acted in a different time period than canon.  
> The way Danny talks, acts and thinks will change over time as he travels though time and different ages, and I promise he will end up as the Danny we know from canon - just more fucked up, maybe  
> I'll admit I'm an university student with history as my topic, but I might fuck something up or make a mistake that someone in here will recognize immediately and feel annoyed by - so don't hesitate to leave a comment and I'll correct it  
> It should also be noted that english isn't my first language, so spelling or grammar mistakes may occur - you're welcome to smack it in my face to, I live to learn after all  
> Hope you enjoy - or not? You decide
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

Officer Nichols flipped through the report in pace with his heavy steps, as the glass offices and many work stalls drifted past him.

It was late, empty, and far beyond office hours. Just not for him.

He dragged down a tired hand through his stubbly face and took a sip of the lukewarm coffee that barely covered the bottom of the cup in his coarse fist.

It had been a hard night full of police reports to write, calls of stupidity to receive, hobos to put sleep in the clink and scantily clad women caught either selling their bodies or dealing loser drugs. Some both.

He had barely send Janice out to make more coffee an hour before when officer Joel had passed him on the way out of the station and smacked a new report down into his hand.

"The kid’s waiting inside the interrogation-room 12. He’s yours for the rest of the night. Tell Gwen I said hey."

"One day I’m going to beat you up with this mug, Joel."

Joel had just grinned with a spark in his eyes and left the paperwork and another brat in his care. Nichols bet the trickster was already driving home with a warm tray of donuts to go by now, as Nichols himself walked to the door of the interrogation-room to question this kid.

Nichols sighed in heavy jealousy and slammed the report together now that he had given it the symbolic reading and stepped into the interrogation room.

The kid didn’t as much as flinch or looked up and Nichols lifted unimpressed a bushy eyebrow. _So, it was gonna be like that, huh?_

"Daniel J. Fenton," he growled intimidating and sat down across from the big bad boy with ostentatiously slowness. He lost a moment of breath when two big sky-blue eyes framed by long dark lashes met his gaze without hesitation or emotion.

The kid’s gaze sent chills down Nichols’ spine and he camouflaged his discomfort by flipping through the papers of the report. Took a noisy sip of cold coffee. God dammit, Janice - how could someone suck this much at making coffee?

"Daniel Jack Fenton. False ID, but the picture looks like you alright. Informs of age 25 and displays stolen personal identification number. Criminal record; stark white and non-existent in the data system, all personal data unknown, background story unknown, history of education unknown, work history unknown, residence and citizenship unknown," Nichols grunted and gave "Daniel" a knowing glance the grown boy chose to ignore.

The officer continued grumbling, "brought in for questioning after arrest on Nightsky casino, where he was arrested following a suspicion of card counting and lack of ID with valid date that hadn’t expired. The staff of casino Nightsky informed that Daniel has been giving a one-time job as an atmospheric singer on stage A3, at 04:00 tonight, but the work information was sketchy and the payment unknown. Refused to speak at the arrest ... "

Nichols threw the folder back on the table and expected the boy to become startled by the loud sound of plastic slamming against metal. That wasn’t the case. The boy across from him just stared.

His blue eyes hadn’t left the officer for one second and continue to stare just straight at him. Drilled into his eyes and into his skull with a look that seems to see everything and still nothing at all.

_He's going to end up at the death row this one. He has the eyes._

Officer Nichols had come across others like this type before. Even had a few seated in this very chair at this very table, in this very room. They were all different of course and yet all seemed identical.

They were young, attractive to the naked eye and all of them almost uncomfortable confident. A ton of teens and young adults pass through this station and all the other stations of the state, as a train station every single day – all of them guilty of something.

It was routine to Nichols.

Some of them broke once you scared them a little. Most of them were flippantly or angry and left the station either in tears, with wet pants or in a Black Maria to continue to their judgment.

They all had some debt to pay society and all of them would pay back one way or another. Nichols preferred it when one of the officers brought in a group of young boys, who had been caught drinking in a public place or caught in the middle of a harmless prank.

The little boys were always on the brink of shitting themselves and once you had placed them behind bars for an hour or two, they were always more than ready to do anything to get home to their neat trimmed suburban houses and apologize to all who would lend them an ear.

Joel and him had an agreed jest, where they would split the boy group into two or more, send them to each cell and inform each group separately, that the other had admitted both drugs and rape and pointed to them as the culprits.

It was always something that made big eyes and brought tears to the small acne-infested faces. Joel and Nichols would then leave the tiny tots, hid behind a wall and listening as the boys would collapse in hysteria and sometimes shout out an embarrassing confession or two.

To go back and release them were almost always the best part of the joke. Tell them you were just messing with them and that they were free to go home. But don’t drink and climb the water tower at the same time, okay boys?

Nichols could always sense it had made a difference, knocked some sense into some young foolish minds. It felt good to make a difference.

But boys like Daniel here? They couldn’t be saved.

Nichols had no unrealistic expectations. Young men with eyes like those had seen too much, done too much and there was nothing Nichols could do, scare him with, or say that could change the young man in front of him.

He could only do his job and find out what he had done, make the report, and send the kid on his way. Either out of here, or to the nearest prison cell.

A little mousy woman opened the door to the room. Janice waved the pot of coffee and he handed her his mug without a word. She trotted out again and Nichols was again alone with the tacit Daniel.

He decided to cut the boy some slack. See where it would lead to.

"Have you nothing to say for yourself?"

He got no answer, but Daniel didn’t seem to see him either. Nichols chose a different tactic, "Daniel – can I call you Danny?"

A little light seemed to turn on behind the dull blue orbs and Nichols knew he was onto something right. Maybe his mother had called him Danny? Maybe someone he had once care for?

"Now, Danny. How did you really end up here, kid? What’s the story?”

“My _story_ ,” Danny sounded as if he was tasting the word like it were foreign to him.

Nichols had been taken back a little by the deep sonorous the boy possessed, but now that he was starting to get a better idea of Danny, he could see the small details.

The red hoodie hid it well, but the shadows reveal a toned chest and well-developed arms, that certainly could pack a mean punch if it became necessary. The hair was styled professionally and too dark to be colored.

The black color seemed almost like liquid ink the lamps' glaring light and healthy to. Danny was a pale guy, but surprisingly well-kept and attractive in an almost feminine manner, despite of the soft defined jaw.

An appearance that could get most girls to throw themselves at his feet. Nevertheless, Nichols had the feeling that Danny wasn’t exactly the romantic type or particularly interested in easy pussy.

The class-ring on his right hand told the man that Danny might have someone to be faithful to, but it was unlikely. The ring could simple be a fashion choice. This mid-twenty-something kid didn’t seem like the husband type either.

He seemed gloomy, melancholy, a loner.

A dangerous loner.

"My story has no meaning, Mr. Officer."

_Oh, my. The kid can be polite, that’s always something._

"It matters to me, kiddo, you see, I'm the person who’s going to send you into one of the many boxes here. There’s a system, you see – I'm going to listening to your sob-story where I’ll nod at the right moment and all that, maybe shed a tear if it’s good. And then I get to determine whether you can go home or stay in the clink. It’s easy, you just have to give me something to work with."

Danny remained silent. Nichols brought himself some time by drinking his shitty coffee, keeping an eye on the kid over the rim. Yes, he was beginning to figure out which box Danny here belong in.

Danny might not exist in the system, but even from a distance you could see that the boy didn’t lived on the street or were born there. He was too well-groomed, well fed and the cloths were too expensive. And the boy owned natural manners to, he was of good family.

But from what the report told him, no one had filed a missing report on Danny. Nichols could already feel the frustration stir. Young men like Danny was in Nichols personal book one of the worst and saddest cases of waste society could bring itself to vomit.

Little spoiled children who had been given everything they could get their little sticky hands on before they could even talk and planted into their cold clinical designer home, like little sunflowers by some nanny.

Brought home like a new pet and placed on a pedestal to be forgotten the rest of the time, because daddy and mommy had better things to do. Little inward brats their inept parents couldn’t take care of them and just left then do as they please in the absence of better.

Danny had probably gotten tired of his paddock and like others before him, he could no longer endure the cold home and no longer help being bored to death in some mansion, where there were too many expectations of him.

He had probably seemed certain that life was personally trying to smother him, decided that he would rebel, as if none had thought of that one before, and run of to live some life he had not realistic understanding of, or idea of the consequences such existence could bring on him.

Little foolish psychopaths who thought they knew something about the dark side of life, because they thought life hadn’t been fair to them.

When it all came down to it, they knew nothing and if Danny had learned anything before he found himself in front of this metal table, it couldn’t had been anything good.

Maybe he should just throw the kid in the clink with some of the real types down there and see if the kid still wanted the free life afterwards. Hell, he would probably do him a favor.

"You decide, I have all night."

Danny woke up a bit with a look like clear blue ice and voice dripping with sarcasm, "do I?"

He shook his head like it was all a sick joke to him and something about his tone told Nichols he could be right about the expectant parents, or possessive caretakers.

Danny smiled bitterly, "it doesn’t change anything, even if I told you ... you would never believe me."

“Try me – I have heard a thing or two in here.”

“Not this.”

Nichols could feel he was getting impatient and perhaps a little curious to, "let’s make a deal then, you tell me your little story and I let you leave if it's good."

The boy was still only here because he was the closest they could come to a temporary suspect at the crime scene. Someone had emptied one of the casino shark’s pockets and all suspects had been thrown out to random stations.

He had already been told that several witnesses were taken into the second wave and the boy was really just a random bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the lack of valid ID was alarming still.

Nichols checked the report again. He had already been informed that a second suspect had been taken into the interrogation room next door and he hoped Miller had more luck with his suspect than him.

Danny probably didn’t know a thing. Nichols had only been told to keep him here because they couldn’t leave any loose ends in this. Better to be safe than sorry – that’s what his superiors always said anyway and he just had to toe the line as always.

But it was probably okay. The station was heated, there was coffee (not good coffee, but coffee still) and his wife would have a little more time to calm down and miss him again, after the quarrel they had had before he went to work that evening.

He could spend an hour on this kid. And who knew? Maybe he had a good story to spare good ol’ Nichols.

“Try me.”

Danny looked at him and just as Nichols had gotten enough of waiting and moved to leave him for another cup of coffee, and let him simmer in its own shit, the boy finally opened his mouth.

"My story begins and ends the day I died in my mother's womb, the year of the lord, 1900 –"

Nichols got his coffee stuck in his throat and sent the boy a glaring look as he got control of his choking breath, "don’t test me, boy."

Danny said nothing. His blue eyes suddenly flashed and was replaced with two green luminous emerald. Nichols blinked and the kid disappeared.

Just…disappeared.

Nichols stood up in shock and overturned his cup over the folder. He forgot all about saving the papers from the hot coffee, as Danny reappeared out of nowhere. Still in the chair in front of him.

Nichols swallowed.

“What the fuck – !?”

"If you want to hear my story, then don’t interrupt me. Otherwise we can sit here until Monday."

Nichols stroked his chin, nonplussed and hands shaking. Considered to pull his gun, but then remembered it hung back in his office. Danny looked at him. Awaiting.

Nichols sat down slowly. Watched Danny in a mix of wary and fascination. Danny waited for him to settle down and then cleared his throat, as he began his story.

"It all started with a ghost portal."


	2. Some lives, some dies and Vlad gets to do both

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic: 
> 
> Officer Nichols' normal routine is disturbed when a troubled-looking young man is taking into questioning at his station.  
> Nichols thinks he has him figured out, but Danny Jack Fenton isn't that simple.  
>  _"My story begins and ends the day I died in my mother's womb, the year of the lord, 1900 –"_  
>  _Nichols's got his coffee stuck in his throat and sent the boy a glaring look as he got control of his choking breath, "don’t test me, boy."_  
>  _Danny said nothing. His blue eyes suddenly flashed and was replaced with two green luminous emerald. Nichols blinked and the kid disappeared._  
>  _Nichols stood up in shock and overturned his cup over the folder. He forgot all about saving the papers from the hot coffee, as Danny reappeared out of nowhere. Still in the chair in front of him._  
>  _Nichols swallowed._  
>  _“What the fuck – !?”_  
>  _"If you want to hear my story, then don’t interrupt me. Otherwise we can sit here until Monday."_  
>  _Nichols sat down slowly. Danny waited for him to settle down and then cleared his throat, as he began his story._  
>  _"It all started with a ghost portal."_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello people!  
> chapter two is ready and running - hope you like it as much as i liked writing it  
> Leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1900, the Fenton Mannor, London, England_

_**“It all started with a ghost portal…”** _

 

“I tell you, Jack, it’s never going to work!”

“Off course it will, V-man!”

Madeline Fenton, maiden name Jackson, watched from her calculations on the blackboard as her husband and friend Vladimir Masters started yet another arguing about the portal.

It was nothing new, but as the work on the portal reached its final critical stage, Jack's impatience has grown and Vladimir's skepticism increased.

Jack, beloved but without manners, had talked about testing their work despite the risks, which neither she nor Vladimir found safely or in any way brilliant. But unlike the Russian, she didn’t discuss openly with Jack Fenton.

A little kick in her belly caused her to grasp the edge of the board discreetly and she soothed her rebellious belly. Eight months into pregnancy and the baby was already trying to knock her down.

She stroked the fabric of her corset-loose dress piece and straightened the neck cloth.

Madeline knew it wasn’t appropriate or ladylike to work this far into her pregnancy, but she had always been of the belief that the human body couldn’t tolerate stalling and nothing good ever came out of collapse in a bed for nine months.

She had already seen what that had done to her grandmother and mother, who had insisted that their life and old age should be spent in an armchair or canopy bed once they reached their forties.

Madeline had throughout her entire childhood and youth never seen her grandmother rise from the armchair once, unless her mother or big sister had been there to move her out in the sun when summer showed its face.

Now it was her mother's turn to spend the last decades of her life in the same armchair and her older sister's turn to take care of her and plant her in the sun when the weather prospered.

If Jack Fenton hadn’t proposed to her two years ago, it could have been Madeline taking care of their mother now.

Madeline shuddered and vowed never to be such a burden to her daughter. Jasmine Fenton resembled her more than her father, but possessed a zeal she didn’t remember having owned as a child.

The little girl was only two years old, but already sounding intelligent and academically out in mathematics, literature, and geometry – which both warmed Madeline's heart and at the same time worried her.

Madeline herself knew how hard it was for a woman to be taken seriously in the academic world and to give her daughter the education she had the potential of, it would be a long dreadful fight for the rest of their life and an ordeal for them all.

Madeline herself had never been allowed to become educated, if not her father had taught her without her mother's knowledge and fed her with books that could stimulate her curiosity.

A dangerous game to play with her mother, but Madeline had kept up her studies in secret, bypassing the general household and still made the chores her mother taught her and her sister Alysia.

She felt a sweet pain at the memory of her kind sick father, who had worked hard to keep their home on the feet. The money was few, but that wouldn’t be adequate for an old family like his to go down in standard.

The only thing that had saved them from decline and finally poverty was the marriage she had made with her father's assistant, Jack Fenton.

A warm and loving – but perhaps not always subtle – expatriate students from the states, who had been an apprenticed to her father at Harvard University and followed him back to England to become educated in the paranormal studies.

Her mother and sister hadn’t showed any goodwill to the brute, impetuous lad, but Fenton was the family of an older generation than theirs, rich and of a good name. Her father had been the one to persuade his wife in the end.

Madeline hadn’t had any objections as she had already lost her heart to Jack at the first meeting in her family's garden. Their wedding had even gotten her old grandmother to rise from the chair for a minute and soon after Madeline had delivered Jasmine.

A perfect and beautiful little girl her father just managed to hold once before his weak heart brought him to rest by the Lord.

Money wasn’t exactly a problem anymore, but most were now insured in their house where the underground portal would become the invention to raise the Fenton name into the revolutionary era and make them accredited in the paranormal research.

Jack had never looked down on her ability despite her weaker sex and Madeline had taken the place as his like-minded partner, and together they had started working out the theory they had drawn from her father's surviving notes and notebooks of dimensional theories.

To create a gateway or portal to a parallel dimension would be a revolutionary discovery, if not historic step in the history of mankind and it would require huge amounts of money and research to bring the project to fruition.

It was during one of their hour-long discussions of the possibilities of state aid and funds, which might be interested in supporting this project, that Jack had remembered his old school pal; Vladimir Masters.

Vladimir Masters had back in the states graduated from the same boarding school as Jack and shared his beliefs about the paranormal.

Masters had the potential, intellectuality equal to theirs and furthermore the money to bring their project to life, as he was an only child and heir to his family's millions of Russian mines and American agriculture.

Masters had answered their request promptly and moved to London to observe their project himself.

The Russian-American gentleman had seemed highly interested in their theory and proved to be good company, as he was a man who only wasn’t an extremely intelligent scientist in their laboratory, but proved to be skilled in the art of conversation as well, as they spend many a night in the house west parlor with a cup of tea.

He had seemed surprised and maybe a little disturbed to find a woman in the laboratory, but soon learned that she wasn’t just some pretty little head and the two of them spend many nights of long discussions at a higher academic level.

Madeline thought she had found a friend in this charming, but sometimes reserved gentleman and it also appeared to delight Jack to see his wife and best friend comfortable in each other’s company.

However, Madeline couldn’t help but notice the slight feeling that Vladimir sometimes gave her more attention than it was appropriate and behaved inappropriately when they were alone in each other’s company.

As the project shot forward with promising results, she had settled with herself that it was just her imagining things – that those strange causes of worries simply weren’t there and ignored her refined sensations.

Vladimir was a dear friend and adored Jack. She had nothing to fear.

She resigned from the board to take a glance at the equation she had drawn with chalk and pondered the possibilities.

If it were possible to prove life after death in the form of a dimension into a parallel world populated by ghosts and spirits, many of the religious after-life expectations would be either enlightened or degraded.

Deep in thought, she grabbed the small silver cross beneath her brocade collar and remember the nuns at the girls' school. If God existed, this dimension could be the first step for humanity towards an encounter with their creator.

Who knew what other dimensions that could be behind this one?

The possibilities seemed endless.

She stroked an escaped auburn lock of hair behind her ear, not patient enough to redo the complicated bun her maid had made this morning and wiped the chalk dust unto her blue skirt without a care.

Jack and Vladimir were still in a heated discussion as she gathered their notes together on the workbench and reread the equations she had asked her husband transcribing last night.

If they were correct, they could try the portal with an ignition from the electrical utility amplifier she had engaged the week before and finally connect the portal to a power source.

She noted absently that Jack was pouring a liquid into the machinery, expecting it was ecto-purifier and he came up to her with a mug of that sweet stuff he called cola. A sticky sweet soft drink Vladimir had brought with him from the states.

She didn’t like the taste of it, but it helped the men to keep sleep from their bodies into the wee hours, making her allow them to bring it into the lab as long as it was in moderation.

Vladimir pushed up the sleeves of his white shirt with a tired sigh and examined the portal’s teen meter tall entrance one last time before the testing.

Behind her Jack had positioned himself by the portal's control panel in eager and Madeline frowned when she suddenly found several errors in the paper’s equations.

Jack set the panel's small gauges and pressure flasks without a worry in the world, obviously not aware of the blunder he had committed.

“Jack, these is all wrong –” she began and turned around to get his attention.

She widened her amethyst eyes in horror as he beat his fist down on the panel's red button.

“Bonzai!”

El pumps and power lines immediately ignited. The ectoplasm flowed through the pipes towards the portal and Vladimir could only stare as the portal was ignited in front of him.

Later at the hospital, she remembered vaguely to have stepped behind Jack in shock, which turned out to have made all the difference between life or death.

With a spark the portal had come to live in all its glory and Maddie had for the slightest of moments actually believed that they had done it.

That despite the wrong measurements, pressure and stabilization of the high-powered ectoplasm supply, they had actually managed to create a gash between this and the dimension of afterlife.

The subsequent unstable distortion of the portal entrance crushed this assumption in seconds and a pillar of green radiation had engulfed Vladimir.

The deadly beam had enveloped him and illuminated his scream before the portal frame had blown up and engulfed the basement in a green flash of light.

Madeline had fourteen hours later woke up at St. Thomas hospital.

The portal which should have acquire them a name, give recognition and honors for her family and husband's name, had transformed the Fenton Mansion into an ardent ruin, killed her husband and wounded her best friend at a level where even the doctors couldn’t hope to save him.

The last she saw of him before they moved him to a hospital in the states, was a glimpse of his disfigured face that had been covered in burns and ecto-acne.

Madeline had been lucky.

Jack’s wide body had shielded her from the explosion and the devastating fire, but the subsequent contractions convinced her nevertheless that the fallen rubble that had covered her unconscious form before the neighbors got her ridden out of the ruins, could have killed her unborn child.

The doctors struggled to turn the baby in her belly, while contractions had been raging in her body. All the while the pain took over her, she prayed fervently to God to save her innocent child and let him leave her womb alive.

Eight months was too early and what about the green light? Madeline gave birth six hours later a cold April morning the 13th day into the 20'th century and could exhausted receive a child with a mane of raven-black hair and blue eyes.

Perfectly sane, healthy and untouched by the disaster.

Her small miracle amidst the chaos.

"You look like your father," she whispered quietly while the newborn boy settled into her arms. Jasmine was brought in by the nanny, who of all things had chosen to take the girl to Hyde park that day and thus avoided to undergo the same fate as the rest of the palace's staff.

The little girl looked curiously at her new little brother and Madeline hugged them both in tears. They still had each other.

A doctor and a priest came into the room when she was modestly covered and asked what the child should be called. A name popped up by itself when Madeline reflected on her father. He would have been proud to give his name to her son.

“Daniel… Daniel Jack Fenton.”

 

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA_

Nichols picked up Danny's fake ID and tilted it slightly in the artificial light.

If he tried hard enough he could actually imagine the boy in an old English 1800 Century outfit. Complete with lap coat and top hat – but he wasn’t a complete idiot and threw the card down again.

Danny seemed to pick up his skeptical countenance and shrugged, "hey, I know how it sounds ..."

"Well, it sounds like a load of crap, son."

Danny watched him approached with the haunted blue eyes and suddenly smiled resourceful, "nothing I said would convince you, would it? "

Nichols grunted, "I'm a cop, kid. We work with evidence and opinions. Hard facts. Not stupid gibbish without the slightest evidence behind it, like this horseshit."

What happened next, would forever haunt the officer and give him restless nights to his death. Two white rings formed around the boy's waist and opened him up like Pandora's box.

The red hooded sweatshirt and jeans were peeled away in favor of a black hazmat suit, complete with white gloves, boots, and white punched cloak. The raven-black head vanished in favor of hair white as snow and the gleaming emerald eyes returned to Nichols’ horrified gaze.

The officer had knocked his chair backwards and held breathtakingly a hand in front of himself in caution, while the other was pressed to the backwall to support him. He had he almost slammed the back of his head into it in his rapid escape.

Danny took no care of his alarmed state, but kept eye contact and ran his hand down his chest, only to press the transparent hand into his own midriff. Nichols coughed as a result of gaging reflexes.

Stared as the hand rummaging around the inside of the boy’s hidden guts and then returned with a small plastic pocket. The small package from hell dripped with a green liquid and Danny threw it quietly across the table to end in front Nichols.

"You wanted evidence? Here you go."

Nichols didn’t move an inch, "what in the hot hallow hell even _are you?_ What is that? What ...!?"

"It's really just my belongings, Mr. Nichols. It's the only thing I have retained at least. Take a look. It won’t bite, i would know."

Nichols took a shallow breath and tried to weigh the situation after his best sense. When the boy ... the _creature_ in front of him showed no signs of wanting to kill him or draw more from his apparently green guts, Nichols made a decision he rated as the most reasonable in this unimaginable situation.

He sat back down.

He laid precariously his hands on the table and eyed the small package. He had heard of drug dealers operating small packets of heroin and shit into people to get their goods through airports, but this?

The strange green liquid had made a small puddle around the package on the table and emitted a strange sweet smell he didn’t know whether he liked or not.

He pulled a pair of plastic gloves he had carried around in his back pocket and congratulated himself for not having thrown them out earlier, when they had examined some small caps one of the homeless people in the clink had had on him.

Sticky green threats connected the small package to the puddle on the table, as he lifted it and he oppressed once again his rebellious stomach. He unfolded the plastic pocket with a little difficulty and the airtight closure opened.

A small black wallet fell out on the clean part of the table and he threw the gloves aside. The wallet didn’t seem to be affected by having stayed in the stomach of the boy before him and he dared to examine it with his bare hands.

The gloves were sullied anyway.

The wallet was nothing special in appearance, but worn enough to seem old and outdated in a sense of design that made it seem like something that could have belonged to Nichols’s own grandfather.

An old worn black and white photograph was in the first pocket and Nichols brought it up to the light to see better. The paper was strong as cardboard and although Nichols investigated it thoroughly, he couldn’t judge whether it was a fake or not.

That wasn’t exactly his field.

An established black and white image of a serious looking woman in a wide black dress, complete with a low neck-bun and white gloves, looked back at him from the Italian chair she was sitting slightly offset on.

A young girl stood loyally by her side with her hair styled with a big bow on top of the long glossy hair and posed in something that looked like an old-fashioned Sunday gown, you usually only saw porcelain dolls wear.

Her features were very similar to the woman in the chair and showed a great openness her mother seems to have lost.

"This’s my mother and sister. It's me next to them."

Nichols brought the picture closer and felt his mouth dry out.

A dark-haired boy with dimples and bright eyes stared back in a mixture of amusement and seriousness. The black tresses almost became one with the black coat and patent leather shoes cladding his little form.

The hands were a bit faded and suddenly Nichols knew why. Back in the old days during the first inventions of photography, people would have to calm themselves for several minutes in order not to disturb the picture.

The boy hadn’t been able to keep his hands still.

A small handwritten note in faded blue ink had been written on the blank back of the photograph.

_Behave properly, Danny. Write when you can._

_\- Jazz._

The year of publication, maybe noted by the photographer, lit up with faded italics in the right corner. _1910._

He looked back up at the late-teen in front of him, who was now back to his black-haired and hoodie-clad self. Nichols swallowed silently.

Danny looked good for a 117-year-old man.


	3. People are connecting and Danny’s just tries to be polite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously In the fic:
> 
> Danny and Nichols makes a deal: Danny will tell his story and if its any good, he's free to go  
> Danny explains his origins and how his father got killed by the ghostportal and Danny himself turned into a half-ghost. Nichols doesn't believe him and Danny removes a wallet with a picture from his insides.  
>  _"This’s my mother and sister. It's me next to them."_  
>  _Nichols brought the picture closer and felt his mouth dry out._  
>  _A dark-haired boy with dimples and bright eyes stared back in a mixture of amusement and seriousness. The black tresses almost became one with the black coat and patent leather shoes cladding his little form._  
>  _The hands were a bit faded and suddenly Nichols knew why. Back in the old days during the first inventions of photography, people would have to calm themselves for several minutes in order not to disturb the picture._  
>  _The boy hadn’t been able to keep his hands still._  
>  _The year of publication, maybe noted by the photographer, lit up with faded italics in the right corner. **1910.**_  
>  _Nichols swallowed silently._  
>  _Danny looked good for a 117-year-old man._
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello people!  
> Who's ready for Vlad Masters to take the scene?  
> Anyway - as I said in the tags, Danny can sing in this fic and there will be times when I put in some lyrics of a song out there  
> In this chapter Danny will be singing Amazing Grace and I found a youtube link I thought was fitting:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDA3mF1NGOM  
> I have the feeling from the episode 'Maternal Instincts' that Danny was a real mother's boy as a small child, while Jazz might be more independent and lean to her father's side - but now that I've killed Jack (cough cough, don't hate me) I think Jazz would be a bit more of a loner in the family  
> Hope you enjoy and leave a commnet if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

The hallway outside the interrogation room was better lit than the small room, but still poorly lighted and the fluorescent light’s flickering irritated officer Nichol’s dark eyes.

He rubbed them tiredly and secured that Danny hadn’t left his seat at the table through the little window in the door and went out to the station's open kitchen area. He couldn’t see Janice anywhere (maybe she was gone home?) and made himself coffee.

It was almost done by automatic, but he made a break in the routine as he rummages through one of the greasy kitchen cabinets and fished out lieutenant Jefferson’s Premium coffee blend of the back closet.

He poured water into the machine with the feeling of self-righteousness. It might be stealing from his boss, but _boy_ did he need some real coffee at this point.

The filter turned out to act difficult between his coarse fingers and he spent more time than usual on pouring the coffee bled and turn on the machine. He noted that his hands trembled and placed them over his eyes with a sigh.

The machine growled peaceful and the smell of freshly brewed coffee filled the small open kitchen.

He was too old for this.

His thoughts had no more actions to be distracted from and he leaned heavily against the kitchen counter. It was Danny on the picture, there was no doubt. The resemblance was way too striking.

It could of course be a little brother standing model, or perhaps an actor with makeup – or just computer made for that matter! – but what would the kid get out of walking around with a picture like this? What was the gaining here?

One thing was the fact that Danny was some kind of supernatural being –

 _who just pulled a bloody package out from his fucking intestines!!!!!_

– but an _immortal_ supernatural being? It seemed too vigorously. Too much. To ... unbelievable. Nichols groaned heavily and was startled by the ‘pling’ that announce that the machine had finished pouring caffeine into the pot.

He couldn’t stall this much longer. He looked up when Janice walked through the doors of the station with take-away in her hands. She spotted him and came over, perhaps for a chat, maybe just to get a plate to her supper.

Nichols didn’t really care, but she had reminded him that he had a bit of a story to listen to inside the haunted interrogation room and he would probably need more than just coffee to get through it.

"Hey, Janice, I have a witness whose story might take a while. Could I get you to order some food for us? You can just put it on my bill, while I continue the interrogation."

She blinked with those big brown eyes of hers, a little surprised by his nice tone, but seems eager to actually be usable. Strange woman.

"Of course, Nichols. Something special in mind?"

He thought for a moment and grabbed two cups of coffee, "something a grown boy would eat. Burgers, maybe."

Danny was still seated ever so patient with lightly folded hands, when he entered with the coffee pot and cups. For a moment, It occurred to Nichols that Danny perhaps was praying, but the idea shattered again when he came around the table.

Danny was simply resting.

He accepted the mug Nichols handed him with a politely "thank you, sir" and Nichols couldn’t help but being a little amused by the idea of having an immortal creature sitting before him and drinking his coffee at. 1:00 in the morning at a seedy police station in Seattle.

Shouldn’t the kid be in some secret temple in the Pacific and hanging out with some devoted cult of worshipers? Meeting other secret over-worldly creatures in some secret meadow or making plans in the dark with demigods?

Strange.

He felt the need to know what exactly Danny was doing here of all places, but that would ruin a good story for himself and he gathered the little photograph again. Studied the little prehistoric finding.

Danny warmed his hands on the mug and looked at his dead sister and mother, "Jazz spent nearly twenty minutes on figuring out which side she wanted that stupid bow to lean to. My clothes were borrowed and scratched like hell."

Nichols couldn’t stop himself from making a bemused smile by the little details the kid was feeding him.

An increased intensity to the picture, another clue to who this being before him was and Nichols laid the picture between them. The green liquid on the table had dried completely.

Danny took a sip of his coffee and looked up at him with a sigh, “we had already moved five times before the picture was taken."

"Because of the explosion?" Nichols asked curiously, but Danny shook his head.

"Money. Or perhaps the lack of money. As I said, dude, my parents had put everything they had in that house and lived on their working partner's money while they built that portal. As a widow, my mom was very poor and with two children, she had to move back home to her mother and sister.”

Danny clicked his tongue, “aunt Alysia didn’t exactly like children, I never found out why, but I think we reminded her of what she never had and made her bitter. When grandma died, we had to move out and mom had to go through her address book to see who could take us in next until she made a plan."

Danny licked his lips and straightened his back, like he had to tell something brutally honest, but humiliating and an old pain seemed to fill his blue eyes.

"It's a phenomenon I haven’t really met in recent times or since my childhood, but when I was a child, you could live on your name, Mr. Nichols. You could be poor as a church rat and still live surrounded by crystal glass, silk cushions and chandeliers, as long as you had an old name and friends who owed the name something. Fenton was such a name. In spite of the fact that we had to patch our own clothes, share the same cold bathwater drawn from a well in the yard and mom had to make our food over the flames in a fireplace, because we didn’t had gas – she could still show off at the festivities in London's best houses and make connections with diamonds in her ears and fashionable dresses rented on time, because everyone knew who she was.”

Danny closed his eyes, “knew who the family Fenton was and whom Jack Fenton had been. We lived on our name and we did it for several years before the money we didn’t have came to an end for the last time, and my mother's coughing started to keep her awake at night."

A bit of accent had crept into Danny's voice and Nichols nodded quietly, "I understand. The money dried up and friends turned their backs on you, your mother became sick. She became desperate. What did she do, Danny? What happened?"

Danny’s eyes darted a second before becoming focused again and he spoke in distant voice, "she wrote to an old friend."

 

_Year 1910, Miss. Jones' little town house, London, England_

_**“She wrote to an old friend…”** _

 

Echoes in the church reverberated far down the nave and Danny waited patiently for the rest of the chorus to finish their canoe, so that he could start and get as much air into his little lungs as possible before he opened his mouth on the old priest’s que.

__

_“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound_  
_That saved a wretch like me!_  
_I once was lost, but now am found;_  
_Was blind, but now I see!”_

Danny hid his sigh of relief when his voice hadn’t failed and the next verse went on to the next boy on his right.

They all sounded in joint chorus and finished their routine with a unanimous, "Hallelujah!" The old priest allowed them to go after that and the boys jumped down from the steps of the altar room and ran out into the sun.

Danny was small for his age and not nearly as agile as many of the other schoolboys and left the church as the last to avoid getting into any problems with the bigger boys. He received a friendly smile from the old priest and choirmaster on the way out.

"Watch out on way home, Daniel. Greet your mother and tell her we look forward to seeing her on Sunday."

Danny nodded eagerly and got his black bangs down his forehead, "that I do, Father."

The wrinkled old priest smiled and thrusted a small piece of candy into Danny's hand. Danny ran to his bike and checked the rusty chain thoroughly before he used a low branch on the old apple tree he had leaned it up against, as a step and jumped onto the old man-bicycle.

He couldn’t reach the pedals from the seat and had to stand up with arms above his head to reach the handlebars, but he had owned the bike in a little over four years now and knew it inside out.

He sped quickly through the church's stone gate and turned sharply to the right on the busy city street. He rode as fast as he could with the little feet on the wide pedals and diverged sharply as a horse-drawn carriage tried to run out in front of him.

He ignored the shouts behind him and continued his rapid road to his home.

The busy city street was quickly replaced by tall townhouses and he passed a side street before he turned into the smallest of the street's houses.

He threw the bike up next to the stack of cracked clay pots behind the house and opened the door to the small backyard, where a kitchen garden welcomed him along with the overflowing laundry leash.

He forgot to dry his feet before he ran in and dragged mud along with him. Danny took the steep stairs three steps at a time and slammed the door to the attic room he shared with his mother and sister.

When he had made sure that he was alone, he fished the small candy out of his pocket and went to his bed.

It was an old mattress stuffed with rags, Miss. Jones had gotten her old maid to make when they arrived a month earlier and his ‘room’ had been created as his mother had placed an old dressing screen and hung a perforated sheet up to shield his part of the attic room.

Giving him the privacy a gentleman ought to possess.

Danny threw himself down on the battered mattress and lifted the right corner. A small shiny confections box appeared in the light from the room's only window and Danny opened the box.

The priest’s candy was carefully studied, a single wool hair removed and then placed down among the other brightly colored sweets.

Danny closed the box and hid it again. The box did say 'Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate' but he was pretty sure Jazz would forgive him for the inaccuracy of the box content when he gave her the box on her birthday this Sunday.

Danny threw himself back on the mattress and stared at his open suitcases resting at the end wall for a time. He didn’t like the old strict Miss. Jones, but mom had said he was not to be ungrateful – but it did not change the fact that the room was too hot and the host a hag.

The last place they had lived, had been an empty mansion in the center of London. They had been able to inhabit and maintain it as long as the family had moved to the countryside for the winter.

The mansion had been great and given plenty of space for games such as hide-and-seek, but terribly cold and they hadn’t had anything to heat up the place with. His mother had dressed him in all his sweaters, but Danny still hadn’t been able to sleep at night because of his clacking teeth.

Who knew what the next place would be like?

The temperature dropped and Danny watched his own breath appear as a blue mist. He sat up with a smile.

“Hey, Youngblood.”

The little ghost boy phased his head through Danny's mattress and sat down across from him a few millimeters above the mattress.

"Hey, Danny! You want to play pirate?"

Danny nodded eagerly and congratulated himself for having hid the sweets before Youngblood arrived. The ghost had a sweet tooth and owned a bad habit of eating Danny’s candy unless he hid it well enough.

In spite of their constant movement, the small freckled ghost had always been a constant in Danny world. He had met Youngblood in the third last house and it had become a habit for the ghost to move after him when Danny traveled.

In a life where it was hard to keep and create new friends, Youngblood had always been a welcome sight. There was just one problem.

His mother had forbidden him to socialize with the ghost.

“Danny, dear! Danny!”

Danny and Youngblood jumped at the sound of his mother who had arrived in the door and Youngblood shot into the air, "see you later, Danny – oh, and tell your mother, her aim sucks!"

Danny giggled as the ghost disappeared and hurried down. The old cuckoo clock on the narrow hallway ticked above him and Danny's boot heels clicked as he ran down the stairs.

Miss. Jones’ maid was currently sitting on the end of the stairs and was about to clean the carpet of mud. She made an angry expression when she discovered Danny was the culprit and he rushed into the room before she could get her hands on him.

" - it is an absurd idea, Madeline. No man wants to finance or take in a poor widow and her children without something in return!"

“He was a friend of me and my husband, there is no reason not to try, Anita. He seemed glad to hear from me over the phone back at the townhouse."

"I've heard he earns 80,000 pounds a year. Hardly a man a woman like you would have any probable chances with, Maddie dear."

His mother rolled her eyes with her back to Miss. Jones, "as I said, we are just friends. No need to put ideas into your own head, that your frail nerves cannot handle."

The old mistress huffed from her seat in the room's only couch and her burly face turned impatient as Danny appeared in the door of the living room. His mother welcomed him with a kiss.

"Danny, hon, how did you do in the choir?"

"Good," replied Danny honestly. The priest hadn’t said otherwise, so he must have been happy.

"Father Graham said he expects to see us Sunday. Lenny's voice cracked halfway through his verses."

His mother didn’t seem to be happy with his comment about little Lenny Thomas, but Miss. Jones appeared to enjoy herself splendid, "that doesn’t surprise me. As sinful as his mother behave, punishment ought to fall on her pitiful offspring. People are so ungrateful, they do not get enough of what is due to them."

His mother chose not to answer their host and showed Danny over to the felt-box on the low rickety tea table, "take off your shoes and pants, we must go and see if this fits your size. Have you seen your sister?"

Danny began to undress, "I still think she’s still having piano lessons with Miss. Steve…this is new clothes?"

'New clothes' often meant clothes that smelled of strangers and needed to be tested before his mom could determinate wherever they would need to be sewn in or added to. Danny took his boots of and hoped the new shoes would fit better.

The old ones were two sizes too small.

Danny frowned confused, when a silk jacket popped out of the box, along with corduroy pants and real patent leather shoes, like the ones you see in shop windows down on Trafalgar square.

"We're going down to take a picture at the photographer in an hour, pumpkin. The clothes are rented, so please do not dirtying it. Sit on the chair and do not do anything until I get back, understood?"

Danny nodded. He wanted to make his mom happy.

"I saw Youngblood again. Your trap in the old house didn’t worked, mom."

His mother's face was marked by a mixture of disappointment and apprehension, "darn, ghost. Next time you see him you call mom, Danny."

Miss. Jones snorted indignantly, "Maddie, stop encouraging him and his silly spook talk. It is not healthy for children to be kept in such fantasy world."

Madeline ignored her old classmate and bent down so that only Danny could hear her, "you know the little pistol mom is hiding in the lining of her suitcase?"

Danny nodded.

"If the ghost shows up without mom there to protect you, use it like we practiced, understood?"

Danny nodded again but crossed fingers on the back. He had once before seen his mom use the pistol on a ghost and couldn’t allow the same fate befall Youngblood.

He thought of all the nights when his mom would disappear for a few hours to do what she called "small side jobs" and later come home with money in hand and green ectoplasm on her dress.

He shuddered.

"Well. I will go and fetch Jazz. Sit on the stool and be a good boy."

She hurried quickly out the door to find Jazz and he rocked a little on the stool, while Miss. Jones was served sweet tea and biscuits. Danny failed to ask if he could get one.

He had already studied the box earlier that day when he had went out to plunder the kitchen with Youngblood and tasted one. They had been hard as stone and tasted like dust, making it an easy choice to pass the offer should it be made.

Moreover, he doubted that Miss. Jones would share. She seemed only to be interested in him if he could tell her something nasty about others.

He livened up when his sister's voice showed up in the back door and sat a little straighter.

"But mom, we can go to church any other day, the church has services every Sunday – I have only birthday once a year!"

His mother sighed and knew all too well she would never come to end this discussion with her daughter.

Jazz had always been very skeptical when it came to her mother's faith in God, angels, and ghosts, and made a virtue of challenging her mother’s outlook on life, if not criticize it. Jazz just couldn’t believe something that wasn’t scientifically proven.

Danny didn’t like it when they argue.

To him, God seemed to have something distant and sketchy about him. Someone Danny didn’t really have a close relationship with or taken to heart, but it sounded nice when his mother told him about heaven and when the priest spoke in the church of absolution and love.

Moreover, Danny liked churches. They had high ceilings, echoed, choirs he could sing in and he liked the fact that there was something serene and peaceful about it.

No matter how many times they moved and where they went to, there would always be a church.

That was a reassuring thought.

"Jazzerincess, the chaise will be here in fifteen minutes, we can discuss this later. There is a dress over on the table, to see if it fits."

Jazz forgot all about her distrust of the Lord and hurried to the velvet-box. An ironed double layer dress with collar and crepe skirt made her eyes shine and she quickly changed on the living room floor.

Miss. Jones watched oven them as his mother went up to change in the attic room and Jazz turned delighted around, making the dress unfolded like a flower.

"Imagine wearing such a dress every day, it is not beautiful, Danny?"

Danny thought she looked like herself in everything, but had from experience as a lonely male among many female learned that there was only one correct answer to his sister's question.

"Yes."

Jazz found a long pink ribbon from the sewing box she had left at the door and began to experiment in front of the mirror, till their mother came down dressed in her dark blue dress.

Danny bit his lip. His mother only wore that dress when they were to do something important, like when they moved to a new place, talked people into lent them money or persuade someone to let them in.

Was it already time to move again?

His mother didn’t notice his sad expression, but shooed them out the front door and into the chaise that had kept waiting for them on the street. Danny looked up at the little worn house and waved goodbye as they drove.

His mother straightened Jazz hair and put an end to his sister's hysteria about which side she wanted a bow tied.

Madeline coughed, but told both of them that she was fine and hid away the handkerchief she had been coughing into. Danny noticed the small spots of blood on the white cotton.

Danny scratched his thigh. His hand turned invisible.

 

"Ah, Danny ... you moved your hands."

Danny stared at up at his mother guiltily and tried to resist the urge to scratch again. He knew you wasn’t supposed to move ten minutes after the flash had blinded you, but it had been necessary.

His pants had threatened to fall off, going intangible and all. What was he supposed to do? Let them fall? He had done it quickly and everything. It wasn’t his fault that the camera was cumbersome.

That and his powers.

"Sorry, Mom," he muttered and she kissed his temple, obviously not really mad at him.

"It will probably work out. I doubt he will notice it anyway."

 _He?_ Danny just nodded to himself. He thought so, they had to move again. A picture would be sent to the next place they would move to and the new people he should start listened to.

He followed his family and listened only with half an ear, while his mother asked the photographer to print three copies. She promised to pay next week.

The photographer took notice of her dress and believed her.

The three small pieces of cardboard was carefully placed into her purse and both he and Jazz followed her as educative goslings, while their mother took them to the bookstore next door and bought letterheads on credit.

Danny and Jazz watched from the desk, as their mother took one of the pictures out of the purse and posted it with a letter. Danny read along from the edge of the desk.

   
_Dear Vladimir._  
_This is my son and daughter, Daniel and Jasmine. I look forward to seeing you again after all these years._  
_Your very thankful and sincere, Madeline Fenton. ___  
  


Danny didn’t know who this 'Vladimir' was, but his ten-year-old mind figured out naturally that this was yet another friend of his mom, another person who owed her or their father a favor and another place to packs bags, suitcases and life to go to.

He was going to miss Father Graham.

Their mother posted the letter at the post office and followed them home, while she made sure that their clothes weren’t soiled by the street gutters or puddles, that splashed with mud when the wagons or the few cars passed too close to the curb.

They arrived safe and clean back at the small townhouse just in time for tea and Danny remember to wipe his shoes this time. He went into the living room to see if Miss. Jones wanted tea with them, but stopped immediately in the doorway.

A tall gentleman sat on the couch with Miss Jones.

Danny’s surprise change to curiosity. He had met a few men over the years and done his observations of them all. In his world, men could be placed into simple variants:

Coarse unpleasant men, who rented them too small apartments.

Smooth-shaven men in suits, who treated his mother friendly but condescending.

His father's brothers, who politely, but firmly had asked them to move out.

Priest. Some good, some less good.

Danny had seen them all, gentlemen, holy-men, scum and the mid-between of those, but none of them got close to this man. Danny wasn’t even sure if he was in the company of a fellow countryman.

The foreign jacket cut and the silver-white hair long enough to be tied into a ponytail and matching goatee, was a complete obscure vision in the eyes of the teen year old. He jumped a little when the man discovered him. Felt awe rush through him.

The midnight blue eyes in the long aristocratic face gazed directly into his with a certain amusement and arrogance. Danny came to understand that the man had found him adorable, which always seemed to be a thing grownups did.

Danny hated it and all fear left him as he straightened his back like his mother had taught him and entered the room with short confident strides.

“Good evening, sir.”

Miss. Jones set her teacup down and spoke with a chirping voice that leaned against the pitched. Danny wondered if she was sick or whether it was all the sweet alcohol-like perfume that filled the room for some strange reasons.

Maybe it was strangling her?

"Danny, it is not nice to interrupt adults when they talk," she scolded him and smiled endearing to the man, "go out and see if Ellin has finished the scones."

Danny did as he was told, but felt the man's eyes follow him out. He suppressed an urge to scratch his hand and found the maid in the kitchen, where she was speaking subdued with his mother. They seemed both completely out of it.

"A gentleman, Mrs. He arrived an hour ago with his own car and servants. He asked for them personally. He is sitting in the living room."

His mother frantically straightened her dress with a worried look, "my God, Vlad. I said he could just send the tickets. He did not need to have come here in person. He must have gone the moment we ended the telephonecall!"

She grabbed him and Jazz and went through the same routine they always did just before they were to meet their new hosted or landlords.

Was their hair combed and neatly?

Were their clothes clean?

Were they freshly washed?

Did they remember their manners?

Danny had done it all before and was ready - except from the thing about having bathed today. His mother concluded them to be presentable and led to the living room. Danny had already seen the man, but looked curiously forward to hearing his voice.

Could the man speak English whatsoever? Maybe he was french, those men were dangerous and eat naughty children.

Miss. Jones excessive laughter could be heard far down the hall and she sent them an annoyed look, when they entered the room. Vlad lit up at the sight of Madeline and rose immediately to greet her, "Maddie, dear! Lovely as always."

His adoring gaze and charming baritone made Madeline easily flustered and she smiled weakly as he kissed her hand. She gasped, embarrassed but flattered, when he gave her a bouquet of big red roses and Miss. Jones watched jealous from the sofa.

His mother motioned for them to come out from behind her skirt.

“Vlad, this is my children, Danny and Jazz,” she led them in front her, letting them know it was time for them to show their best of behavior and greet their guest.

Jazz giggled when Vlad kissed her hand. Danny got a firm handshake and noticed that the man's hands were rough below the white gloves.

Vlad had worked with his hands. His mother had always said his father had had hands like a farrier – this might be a good sign.

"Oh, we have already met each other – a very polite boy you have here, Maddie," said Vlad friendly and tousled Danny's hair in good manner. His mother glowed with pride and the boy guessed he was completely forgiven for the photo mistake.

Vlad placed himself down on his knees to level with both of the children and pulled out two brightly colored packages from his jacket.

"To the lovely lady," he said and gave Jazz a package. She opened it without asking for permission first and brightened up as a pearl-embroidered hairband emerged from the small silk box.

"And to the young lord."

Danny looked up at his mom for permission and she nodded. He accepted the package with a "thank you, sir," and unwrapped the gift. A real clockwork Motor Car is red with guilt effect detailing emerged from the box and Danny couldn’t hold back a big smile.

Vlad seemed to be pleased with their reactions and clapped his hands three times. Three servants showed up in the door and stood in a row. Surprising everyone except Vlad.

He snapped his finger at them, "get Mrs. Fenton and her family's belongings brought out to the cars and prepare for departure. We have a train to get to."

“Wait, Vlad!” his mother exclaimed uncertain, as the three men moved up the stairs, but Vlad didn’t seem to want to hear any objections.

"Madeline, I have it all arranged, there’s no reason for concern. I have already bought the tickets for the train. There’s a room ready for you in the country estate I bought in northern Yorkshire."

Miss. Jones stood indignant, "no, listen, this is highly unseemly! They cannot just run from the rent and –"

Vlad wrote a check without even looking at her and handed it over carelessly, as if she were just another obstacle he couldn't take care of. Miss. Jones looked as if she would have a seizure, but then looked down at the check and immediately became silent.

Vlad took Jazz by the hand and led her towards the door. His mother went after them and tried to talk sense into some Vlad, but it seemed that everything was already planned for them and Danny went upstairs.

The three servants swept past him with their stuff and Danny slipped into the attic room. His box of sweets was still under the mattress, but something told Danny that he wouldn’t need it where he was going.

Youngblood came up beside him and looked anxiously around, "moving again?"

"We will be staying in an estate in northern York-something," Danny replied and handed him the box, "are you going?"

Youngblood opened eagerly the box and put a handful of candy in his mouth, "that depends – can you can play hide-and-seek in northern York-something?”

That Danny knew nothing about, but he knew they were going by train and Youngblood liked to play train conductor, which was a start.

He heard his mom call and ran down to the now packed car, that turned out to be one of the new self-propelled cars that you would otherwise only see at the center of London.

Youngblood followed Danny with his eyes from the attic window and flew down to ride along. A silver-haired man with a black jacket and red scarf, suddenly turned and looked up at him and the ghost stopped dead in track.

The man's eyes flashed red and Youngblood felt his own core pulsate quickly in shock. The man's ghost-signature had a power Youngblood had never met before and he knew instinctively that he didn’t had a snow ball’s chance in hell against this ghost.

He flew back to the house in horror and Vlad glared coldly after him. Only when the auto cars had left the street, could Youngblood breathe easy again.

He didn’t follow Danny to Yorkshire.


	4. Kids are mean and losers gotta stick together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prevously in the fic:
> 
> Danny's mother loses everything after the portal accident and turns to an old friend for help.  
> And Vlad Masters is more than eager to help them return to normalcy.  
>  _Youngblood followed Danny with his eyes from the attics window and flew down to ride along. A silver-haired man with a black jacket and red scarf, suddenly turned and looked up at him and the ghost stopped dead in track._  
>  _The man's eyes flashed red and Youngblood felt his own core pulsate quickly in shock. The man's ghost-signature had a power Youngblood had never met before and he knew instinctively that he didn’t had a snow ball’s chance in hell against this ghost._  
>  _He flew back to the house in horror and Vlad glared coldly after him. Only when the auto cars had left the street, could Youngblood breathe easy._  
>  _He didn’t follow Danny to Yorkshire._
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello people  
> So happy to see that you like the story - hope to give the people what they want!  
> anyway, here's the song Danny is singing - it's a translation of an anonymous 17th-century Irish poem titled "Táim sínte ar do thuama - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95I7t1znYFk:  
> I had some problems with finding the right angel for how Danny, Sam and Tucker would meet - at first i was going to make Danny go to a school for boys, but that would single Sam out and then there's the whole problem about Tucker's skintone in this time period.  
> I decided to make Tucker a scandal on the school and hopes that it will work out  
> hope you enjoy - leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1910, the Masters estate, Yorkshire, England_

Danny’s bare feet sounded loudly and gave a faint echo, as he moved around in the dark.

He could faintly smell the food from the servants' wing, but felt no hunger for food. His appetite had vanished into thin air and a small knot had taken its place in his stomach.

Danny was concerned.

The ride to the castle had gone as effectively as any adult would have liked it and been just as exciting as any child could have dreamed of.

Danny and Jazz had both lost their hearts to the view from the luxurious train compartment on first class and gaped of all the wonders a journey through England's land had offered.

For a time, they had both been too engrossed in the adventurous travel, to take any notice of the two adults, but when it was time to go to the dining part of the train, both Danny and Jazz had awoken from their enchantment and listened to the adults' conversation at the table in secret.

Both siblings made sure to show all their table manners now that they were in company of a gentleman and make a good impression, as their mom had taught them.

Jazz placed the napkin in her lap as delicate as she could and Danny made sure to stand when a lady – that is, his mother or Jazz – sat at the table. Vlad seemed to be deeply amused by their endeavors and showered them in attention in return.

"Tell me children, what is your most favored subject in school?"

Danny hushed as he knew a question directed at the both of them meant Jazz would be the one to take the word as the oldest. She straightened herself, "it would for my part be mathematics, history and geometry, sir. Mother has been teaching us at home."

"And I'm sure she did a remarkable job at that. Tell me Jasmine, how old are you now?"

"Eleven, twelve this Sunday, sir," she replied, quick to added the fact that she was so much more than just a mere eleven-year-old.

Vlad nodded and noted her obvious craving of breaking out of the sphere of childhood, "an appropriate age to begin preparations for an upcoming role as mistress of a house. I have a governess who can take care of her training."

Madeline tightened her grip on her teacup. She had appeared pressed and tightlipped the entire trip, but it was only now that the siblings took the time to notice it. Busy as they had been on their own adventure.

"It's very kind of you, Vlad, but Jazz has an incredibly clever head on her shoulders. I would prefer to continue my tuition and – "

"Nonsense, Maddie. Until we get you back on your feet and have our words from the doctor that you’re perfectly healthy again, I will not see you take a step out of bed. It shocks me you even went out this rainy day. You should take better care of yourself, my dear. Furthermore, the air here in London in no possible way safe to breathe. You will soon be able to breathe more freely when we reach the countryside. The castle has a park which is bound to make you wonders."

Vlad put a white gloved hand over their mother's little naked one and got an expression in his eyes that made Danny uncomfortable. He leaned against his sister with a whisper, "... is he courting mom?"

"Does it matter?" she whispered back without a concern, rather the opposite, "he can take care of her and us. We are never going to have to move again if mom says yes."

"Yes, to what?" Danny asked anxiously. Jazz looked at him with eyes that clearly pitied him his childish ignorance, "marriage, of course. Don’t you want a real father?"

 _"No,"_ Danny replied outraged.

The old photograph his mother hid in her suitcase of their deceased father, was almost sacred to Danny. The man in the picture had a friendly recklessness over him, a happy demeanor that Danny liked and their mother's anecdotes about him had a special place in Danny's heart.

If Vlad was to be their new father, what would happen to the memory of Jack Fenton?

That didn’t seem to be what Jazz wanted to hear.

"It would be best for everyone, Danny. A home without a man is not a real home – the priest says so himself. Moreover, you need a role model if you want to be a gentleman one day. Think of the future, little brother."

Danny blinked frightened and looked imploringly up at their mother to make her put a break in this nightmare. But she was now engrossed in a heated conversation with Vlad and had acquired hectic red spots on her pale cheeks.

"Vlad, he is only ten years old. Boarding school should not be necessary when I can teach him until he is twelve. Jack would never have allowed it."

"The school was mine and Jack's alma mater, Maddie. It is only fitting that a quick boy like Daniel here enters the first step of a proper education. He will need all the knowledge he can obtain once he accedes as my successor, dear. Once he finishes Harvard I will make him part of my empire myself."

Madeline gasped and grabbed her corsage. Mrs. Jones’ maid had helped her tighten the coset two inches more for the photography's sake, but now it took all her willpower not to pass out on the dining card’s Persian rug.

"Vlad, this is going too fast. I cannot ... I-I will not – "

What she ‘could not or would not’ were never exactly made clear, as Madeline Fenton's lungs pulled together in a fit of coughing, the worst to date. Vlad got up immediately to help her and a waiter from the next table rushed in to help.

She tried to tell them she could stand herself, but the lungs refused to unfold again like they used to and she lost her breath.

Danny and Jazz followed apprehensive, while their mother was carried back to their compartment and laid down on one of the padded seats. One of the guests in the dining carts included the macabre parade and informed them he was a doctor.

Vlad bought an extra compartment, to make sure their mother would get rest and peace for the rest of the trip and Danny gazed after his mother, as a wet cloth was laid over her forehead and the doctor opened her corset to place a stethoscope on her back.

The door was closed and he felt the urge to hit something. A warm rye hand was laid on his slender shoulders and pressed it with a gentle force that said everything would be all right.

_“Don't worry, Daniel. I will take care of us.”_

Dany had shuddered at the little 'us'. There were unsaid promises in the word and Danny hadn’t been sure whenever or not he liked power of those unspoken pledges.

Which brought him back to the present, where another "us" had become evident. Danny had been lying in his bed, sleepless and a little cold from laying in such a huge bed all to himself, when blue mist had left his lips.

He immediately sat up and waited for Youngblood to appear, but the little ghost hadn’t phased through his new soft mattress, or through the wallpaper covered the walls. After what had felt like an hour, Danny had become impatient and a little bit puzzled and gone out to find him.

Who knew, maybe Youngblood had been lost?

Danny couldn't blame him. The castle was huge and large enough that even his mother had commented on it. Danny knew from her stories that she had grown up and lived in a mansion, she had to know what she was talking about.

Danny stopped when three green birds shot up from the floor in front of him and hung in the air. They stared at him and he stared back.

"Have you seen Youngblood?" he asked, as only a child could ask and the three vultures seemed surprised by his question.

The leader turned to the others, "Vhy, he not running and screaming?"

“It’s the kid, ze boss talked about, you idiot. Ve vhere not supposed to let him or the others see us!”

The vulture turned to Danny again, "eh, kid. You can keep a secret, yes?"

Danny nodded. He knew how to kept a secret.

The vultures seemed relieved, "gut, then don’t tell ze boss, that ve’ve meet.”

With those words, they phased back through the walls and vanished again.

“Wait!” Danny yelled and ran to the wall, “you forgot to tell me if you had seen Youngblood!”

Danny closed his eyes and concentrated. He felt his little hands become intangible and the feeling worked its way up through his arms, shoulders, chest and head. He opened his eyes again as he stood on the other side of the wall and smiled proudly.

He had actually done it.

With a little more control over his powers, he ran through the empty room and opened the door to the new hallways. The sound of voices led him to a door with a light under and he stopped when he recognized his mother's voice.

The door was slightly ajar and he peered in through the crack.

" – I cannot stay in bed this way, Vlad. I do not care what the doctor said or not said, I need to be up and doing something, anything!"

His mother was sitting up in bed and waved annoyed with her hand at the maid who was currently serving her late-night tea. Mr. Masters emerged in Danny's vision made a gesture for the maid to leave them.

Danny froze and turned invisible – a power he had mastered recently and watched as the little maid disappeared down the hallway. He lost his invisibility, not strong enough to keep it very long and watched as Mr. Masters sat down on the edge of his mother’s bed, with his back to him.

"It's the kind of carelessness that has brought you to this state, Maddie. If you don’t let your body rest and let the doctor take care of you, you will never recover. Give it some time, hmm?"

His mother sighed, but said nothing.

Vlad seemed to have more to say and his voice became more intense, "I have long wanted to ask you, Maddie ... you remember the accident, I presume?"

"How could I forget it ... it took my husband, my home, my life's work ... it nearly took our lives. I still cannot believe Danny is as healthy as he is."

"Oh, yes, Jack and his clumsiness – but then you certainly would remember that I suffered some ... _side effects_ after the accident? You and I are the only survivors, my dear, and I couldn’t help but fear for you when you called and I learned you were still alive. Maddie ... did you suffer any casualties ... after the accident?"

She looked baffled at him, Danny could hear there were several allusions in his question, but didn’t know what he wanted of her.

"Other than burns? No, I cannot say.”

Even with his back to Danny, the boy could tell the man was disappointed. Maybe even more than disappointed – heartbroken would be the correct term.

Danny left the door when he sensed Mr. Masters would soon leave the room and Danny knew he would get into trouble if they found him out of bed.

He soon found his own room again and fell asleep on the expensive mattress. He dreamed of Youngblood, ghost vultures and a blinding green light.

 

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

Danny stared straight ahead and his face became lightly veiled by the coffee steam from the cup under him.

Nichols poured another cup for himself and wrinkled the already wrinkled forehead with a frown.

"Pneumonia?"

"Tuberculosis," Danny replied without a trace of emotion.

He spoke as if his mother's illness was nothing but another reality to deal with, "they said she had inherited her father's weak heart, but today I know that a ‘weak heart’ is just a trash diagnosis. I found a book at the local library a few years back. It said that people in the old days often died of tuberculosis because they never burned or changed the mattresses others had died in. The disease lived in the mattress texture as dried fluid and went on to the next owner when you inherited them or gave them away. I guess people died and were born on the same mattresses." 

Danny shook his head, "even if I could turn back time and tell my mother to get a brand-new mattress fresh from the factory, in order not to get sick, she would probably have called me silly. At diseases in the bedding would be silly. At least at the time ... "

Nichols felt the first sting of pity for the late-teen.

Nichols’ own father had died some years ago of lung cancer, but Senior Nichols had always known that cigarettes would kill him some day and everyone had known the source of his illness.

Nichols had been fortuned enough have been an adult when he buried his father and paid him the last respect.

He cleared his throat, "so… ghosts, eh?"

Danny got a twinkle in his blue eyes, "ghosts is the theme, dude. This is a ghost story, after all."

Nichols chuckled, not going to comment on the fact that Danny had change from his polite ‘Mr. Officer’, as stiff as it had sounded, to a simple ‘dude’. Some would probably had found it disrespectful, but Nichols had learned from experience that most kids only called people they liked by that term.

He believed Danny’s to be one of those.

He made himself comfortable in the cheap metal chair with a sigh, "then let me get this straight – a half-ghost haunts a haunted castle? I can’t say I’d have heard that one before."

"But not for long," replied the young adult and emptied his cup, "when the summer ended, I started at the boarding school and sailed across the sea. Good old America – or new America, as it was then…I think...what year is this again?"

The officer grunted by the kid’s obvious joke, "let me guess, the boarding school was hell? The old school always seems like that in the movies."

Danny's face broke into a big grin, "it was the worst and best years of my life."

   
 

 _Year 1913, the Caspár Academy, New Hampshire, USA_

_**“It was the worst and best years of my life.”**_       

“I’m gonna get you, Fen _turd!_ ”

Danny raced down through the library like the devil was right behind him and this could to a certain extent be the truth, as a bunch of bigger and stronger boys with murder in mind, followed close behind him.

Danny looked quickly over his shoulder and saw that Dash Baxter was catching up to him. His heart beat an extra sweep and he speeded up as much as his skinny legs would allow.

He slowed down to jump into the large dining hall and continued down the large room and passed the empty tables where few students still sat in small clusters, bent over their homework or books. Danny’s run came to a halt as he hurried to glide and hid under teacher-table’s green tablecloth.

The sound of Dash and his cronies’ running footsteps flew just past Danny hiding place and into the open yard. Danny sighed in relief and took a second to regain his breath and looked up to discovered he wasn’t alone.

Three other boys were huddled deeper in and shared his tired stare. They all waved crestfallen, "hey, Danny."

“Hey, Micky, Nathan… other boy I don’t know the name of yet.”

“Tucker,” the dark boy enlightened and Danny recognized him now. Not by face, but reputation.

Everyone seemed to like gossiping in the corners of the school and beyond a few covert things, Danny had heard thing or two about Tucker Foley. Who hadn’t?

The black student was both an infamous and despised pupil at Caspár Academy. Not only because of his skin color, but the fact that his family was new money – a crime enough in itself, if you tried to rub shoulders with the old money.

If this wasn’t outrageous enough in itself, it was topped by the rumor that Mr. Maurice Foley was the son of a man whose father had been born of the marriage between a freed slave and white general stationed on Haiti.

Rumor had it that Foley's family had become rich by his grandfather's smuggler money and honor for his service during the slave uprisings, that had plagued the islands. The rest of the wealth has supposedly come from the business he had been able to do on the plantations.

The money and medals had ultimately made the family Foley significant enough that they could send their only son to a whit boarding school, but it had its price.

A price which young Tucker Foley now had to pay to the white men's children.

Danny couldn’t blame the other if he only had contempt left for them. Danny himself hated his reside on Caspár Academy more than anything and couldn’t wait for the Christmas holidays to come.

The long letter correspondences between him and his mother and sister was his only consolation in this hell hole. Nevertheless, it had often been with some anger that Danny had answered his mom or sister's letters and even now the resentment rested in him.

Jazz seemed completely to have been infatuated in her new life and wrote about nothing but all the gifts Mr. Masters brought her and the engagement she was soon to enter with the son of one of Mr. Masters business associates.

Danny still had yet to met this Dean Thornwood, but if his father was a friend of Vlad Masters, he had to be a complete wazzack.

Just to make it worse was the fact that Jazz had begun to sign her letters as "Jasmine" – next she would probably start to addressee him as "Daniel", like that old scum to Masters.

His mother was no better. All her letters were issued one way or another about Masters and it was driving Danny crazy to read between the lines and see the small intimate details that could easily be translated into feelings between them.

Danny wished the man to the place where the pepper grew.

Ever since Vlad Masters had forced his way into their lives, the memory of his father had slowly faded and his family seemed completely to have forgotten there had been a time before the wealth and abundance.

But not Danny, he wasn’t going to forget from where he had come from and would pride himself of it for the rest of his live, even if it and his smart mouth wits made him a target to the rest of this snobbish dumb.

Masters had perhaps never hit him or spoken an insensitively word to Danny ... directly without hiding innuendo maybe, but there was a natural arrogance to the man and hidden undertone in everything that he did, that just didn’t go well with Danny.

The boy had been filled with loathing when he saw the man eat his mother with his eyes and usurp opportunities to touch her. Danny hated the way Vlad always seemed to turn Jazz against him and made Danny’s anger seem unreasonable.

Danny had bit into the sour lemon and hushed it in the age of ten, because he didn’t want to worry his mother, but now that he was twelve, Danny had quickly become tired of dancing to the tune of the adult’s flute.

He remembered the last letter, in which half of it had been written by Vlad and decided to do something drastic – he would sign a quest to the school office and spend Christmas at the Academy.

Dash and his friends would go home to their families and leave school safely and empty for the winter. Danny knew he probably would be lonely, but it was no real difference between that and now.

He really had nothing to lose. He just couldn’t handle the thought of yet another holiday in the company of Masters. Or being forced to celebrate Christmas. Ugh.

The four bully victims went their separate ways when the bell rang to class and Danny hid behind a group of schoolgirls, as he caught a glimpse of the blond hair and Dash Baxter’s confident smirk.

Paulina Lopez, who led the group of girls, discovered Danny and caught Dash’s attention. The girls parted to expose Danny with loud giggles and he choose to run the last stretch to the crowded classroom.

His invisibility and intangible powers got him safely through the crowd of uniform dressed schoolchildren, like a hot knife through butter and he sat down contentedly on one of the vacant seats in back of the room.

Mr. Lancer entered before the clock had made its final call and choose to ignore some of the riche students, who had arrived late. Danny opened his leather bag and began to pull out his latin notes and grammar books to lay on his table.

Mr. Lancer began writing conjugations up on the chalk board and they recited in unison when he asked them bend 'to be'.

“Sum, es, est, sumus, estis, sunt…”

“And in preterite and future form, children.”

“Eram, eras, erat, eramus, eratis, erant…ero, eris, erit, erimus, eritis, erint…”

Danny took notes, but soon became uninterested and started to daydream in his boredom.

The girl in front of him moved her head a bit and her long black braid swung slightly and reflected the light from the dusty classroom window. Danny observed it for a time and wondered what would happen if he gave it a tug.

He didn’t, of course, but the idea was tempting. The girl turned her head as if she had read his thoughts and he looked into a pair of amethyst eyes, much like his mothers.

“Psst! Do you have a pen?" the girl whispered and showed him her broken pencil. Danny handed her one of his and noted to his confusion, that the girl had drawn small runes and symbols on her arm as the black sleeve pulled back slightly.

She sent him a look that clearly said, "I will kill you and chop your corps into small pieces for my dog to feast upon, if you squeal" and Danny shut his mouth. She gave him one last look before she turned back and whispered something to her seatmate.

Tucker Foley whispered something back and Danny went back to take notes.

Excellent, even the academy most hated boy had more friends than Danny!

Even if Dash hadn’t chosen him as his personal punching bag from day one of their first semester, Danny doubted that anyone would had approach him anyway. Danny was naturally a loner and too small for his age to attract the positive attention in the boys’ flock.

Not that he would have more luck among the girls either. The pretty Paulina had shortly pretended she liked him back at first semester, but it had proven to just be a big jest that would lead Danny in a trap and make him make a fool of himself.

He had considered making use of his new ancestry and use Vlad's name, but he wasn’t officially a Masters since his mother hadn’t married the man and even if Danny had worn Masters name, he would fling himself into the Ghost Zone before he told a soul.

Better to be a deferred Fenton, than a Masters with false friends.

However, it could be nice with friends. Just a little.

As Latin ended, Danny was both exhausted and crestfallen, his second year at Caspar Academy seemed to be like the first and Danny hid as he transformed and flew to the school’s chapel.

It was closed outside morning church services, but Danny could fine peace in the cold building and phased in without worrying about the closed door or locks.

Danny pulled out the small cross his mother had given him when he went to boarding school and pressed soothing a thumb against the cold silver.

Since there wasn’t a soul in the chapel this late in the day, Danny could do as he pleased in his ghost-form visible and enjoy the calming effect of weightlessness. He had discovered his second form a few months back when he fled from Dash and just wanted to fly away.

Before he knew it, his feet had left the ground and his school uniform changed from black to white. He had flown up to the roof of the building and stayed there until Dash had grown tired of looking for him and the sun went down.

The star had come out that evening and Danny had spent the night admiring them alone in the dark. Wished he was up there among them and could lie all his worries behind.

The chapel had become one of the places he could be at peace and the familiar surroundings helped a bit on the homesickness. Danny didn’t exactly miss England, but he missed his family and right now it seems to him his family was distant in both body and mind related sense.

Danny was startled as the door to the chapel was opened and he made himself invisible.

Four girls peered in and hurried over to the first row of seats. Danny could hear them whispering, but not what they were whispering about and flew closer. His heart beat faster when he discovered it was Paulina and her friends.

What where they doing here?

"Are you sure he will be here?" Stella Miller asked, or "Star" among friends. Paulina rolled her eyes at her friends missing faith.

"Of course, he will. The gardener said he saw the phantom fly in here last night. He swore on his mother's grave and no one swear on their mother's grave without meaning it."

"I don’t know," came it hesitantly from one of the other girls, "I've heard he's drinking and telling stories to all who pays him. What if the phantom doesn’t exist?"

"He does!" Paulina insisted eagerly and got a dreams expression, "I saw him on the roof of the school a year ago. I heard a song and looked out my window and there he was. He was resting under the moon, singing about his lost love and I thought my heart would break. He had hair as white as snow and eyes as green as emeralds. As he flew out towards the stars, he became one with them and disappeared without a trace. He was the most beautiful boy I have ever seen. I think he's haunting the school because his lost love died here. He’s probably looking for a girl with her face and mind. A beautiful maiden that can heal his sorrowful heart."

The other girls sighed enthralled and it occurred to Danny that they were talking about him. He frowned.

Phantom ...?

His eyes darted from the girl’s dreamy expressions to Paulina's loving smile and got red cheeks.

He left the daydreaming to the girls and flew up onto the roof of the chapel. If Paulina had seen him, he'd better be more careful. If anyone saw he change from ... Phantom ... back to Fenton, there would be trouble.

He munched a little on the name, "Danny Phantom ..." it had certain sound to it. Like one of the heroes of his old shilling novels or the heroes of street boy’s penny dreadfuls. And the heroes always got the girl eventually.

Danny forgot himself in his own daydreams and soon where he was.

He began to sing a song he had heard the gardener sing and his voice sounded clear across the roof.

_"I am stretched on your grave_  
_And will lie there forever_  
_If your hands were in mine_  
_I'd be sure we'd not sever.”_

_“My apple tree my brightness_  
_It's time we were together_ _For I smell of the earth_  
_And am worn by the weather_  
_When my family thinks_  
_That I'm safe in my bed_  
_From night until morning.”_

  


_“I am stretched at your head_  
_Calling out to the air_  
_With tears hot and wild_  
_My grief for the girl_  
_That I loved as a child.”_

  


Paulina and her friends all looked up in alarm as a sorrowful voice began to sing quietly above them.

"It's him," Paulina whispering in shrill enthusiasm and the other girls followed apprehensive, but intrigued, as she went up the stairs to the small bell tower.

They soon discovered that they weren’t the only ones who were on ghost hunting this afternoon. Tucker Foley and Sam Manson looked up when the girls bumped into them on the stairs. Sam and Paulina's eyes met immediately in the crossfire and they stare each other down.

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same, Manson," Paulina replied self-righteously and swung with her long lush hair. Sam rolled her eyes at her and hoisted up the converted radio she and Tucker carried between them.

Paulina's eyes widened and her face contorted in anger, "Oh no, you don’t. Phantom is not one of your silly ghosts to hunt for make-believe with your silly machines. He is a pretty sorrowful soul and you dare to try to catch him!"

"Hey, we do more than just catching ghosts – we help them on to the afterlife," Tucker defended and Sam took a bold stand.

"Anyway, it doesn’t concern chicken brains like you, what we do. You wouldn’t be able to get ten meters near a real ghost, even if it was you were haunted by one."

“That’s not true!” Star cut off and stood in front of Sam to protect her friend, "Paulina is the girl Phantom appeared to. If anyone is to help him on to the afterlife, it should be her."

Paulina lifted her chin proudly and pushed past Sam on the stairs. Sam answered by grabbing her by the hair, "get lost! We have hunted that ghost for three weeks now and I'm not going to let you ruin this!"

Foley pressed protective the rebuilt radio and its wires to him, as the two girls hissed at each other.

He half hoped they would start pulling up in each other's skirts in the fight and half that they would stop rival and come to an agreement, in order for him to get back to his dormitory without them all being discovering by the night watch.

He didn’t need another letter from his parents. He had already crossed the line to many times with the school’s regiment of rules.

He had only agreed to go out after class and chase this ghost, because he was too anxious as always to say no to Sam Manson. Not only because the girl was a brutal force of nature no man could ever hope to control, but because she was the only real friend Tucker had ever known in this unforgiving place.

Why a beautiful, but independent, girl like Manson even insist on hanging out with him, even after he had proved to be nothing but uninterested in her lifestyle, often marveled Tucker.

Sam had pulled him aside one day at the first year and teamed up with him, because she’d thought he might held knowledge to some voodoo magic with the Haitian blood in his veins, but Tucker had unfortunately been forced to disappoint her.

Still, she had continued their friendship and Tucker had showed his gratitude by being candid about helping her and her occult interests.

Sam had inherited an innate interest of the supernatural from her Jewish grandmother and lineage which was named to be one of Europe's oldest and deeply specialized in gemstone dissemination.

Sam, however, had only inherited the interest of the dusty old books on Jewish golems and blood sacrifice of the Torah, rather than gemstone sales and had only scorn left for the upper-class parties.

Sam Manson may have been born to be a wealthy woman, but she was hardly a lady. She despised the upper class she had been born into and had come more than at one occasion into crossfire with the school board, because of her strong opinions of women's liberation and feminist ideas.

Tucker and Sam may not have agreed one everything, but they could both agree that they would like to see a real ghost.

Their hunt for ghosts had gradually started to become common knowledge among most students, as it had become quite common to see the odd couple wander about in the surrounding forest, the village below the hill or sitting immersed in the school's library among old books in search of one or another supernatural phenomenon.

Tucker had gradually given up after the haunted well in the village had turned out to just be home of a bunch of turtles and not banshees as expected.

They had made a fool out of themselves, but Sam had gotten new hopes of beholding the paranormal world, when the rumor of a Phantom who allegedly haunt the school's own chapel came to her attention.

”It’s true love!” Paulina shouted furious and pushed Sam of her before she took the stairs in full gallop. Tucker rushed to help Sam, but she was already back on her feet and raced after the other girl up of the spiral staircase.

Tucker ran after them, while Star and the other girls decided that it was too dark and too late for them to chase the creatures of the night and hurried back to their dormitory.

 

Danny watched as the crescent moon emerged from the clouds above him and made his white ghost school uniform appear bright as snow.

His voice sounded hushed across the roof, where small eaves and spires made it look as if he was sitting between the roofing sheets of a small town. He closed his eyes and for a moment, just a moment, he could actually convince himself that he was back in the streets of London.

His mother would sit and wait for him in a stranger's living room and Jazz would meet him on the way home, where she would talk about Freudian psychoanalysis without an end.

They would go home to the place they for a while could call home and they would go to bed in a tiny attic room where Youngblood would wake him in the middle of the night to play hide-and-seek.

Danny's daydreams were abruptly interrupted when the small window to the chapel’s narrow bell tower slammed open and two girls jumped out. He sprang to his feet to say it was too dangerous for them to run on the roof, but then remembered that he was in his ghost form.

What now?

"Phantom!" Paulina shrieked with a broad smile and Danny was both flattered and alarmed by her attention in the middle of the rickety roof. He darted a trifle between the decision of run away or turning invisible.

His dilemma only increased, when the girl from Latin class showed up behind Paulina and started to pull her backward. Her eyes caught Danny and she gaped, “holy temple shit, he’s real!”

Danny was a little taken back by her dirty mouth and almost forgot about Paulina, who struggled to get out of the girl’s grip. The girl with the questionable raising grabbed Paulina’s skirt to keep her in place, “he’s a ghost – don’t run to him like that!”

“Hey, don’t fight up here, you’re going to –” Danny's warning became reality when Paulina pushed the other girl of her.

The girl's foot stepped off the edge and right out into the open air. Tucker Foley that had only just pushed his way through the window, gasped when he saw his friend fall.

“SAM!”

Sam Manson flapped with her arms for a second and fell like a stone. Her school uniform fluttered around her like wings, the wind caught her hair and howled around her.

She screamed in terror and was certain that she was going to meet her maker, as the schoolyard came towards her at high speed.

The whole world suddenly stopped to fall when two arms closed together around her and gave her buoyancy. Sam slowly opened her eyes and saw that the ground disappeared beneath her and was replaced by stars and passing eaves.

She completely lost momentum by the sight and looked up.

A white-haired boy flew above her and looked down at her. Sam forgot how to breathe as the Phantom’s green eyes looked into hers.

The disappointment of the fact that the spells she had drawn on her arms to keep away evil spirits appeared to have no effect on the ghost whatsoever, was soon replaced by the utter realization that she was actually face to face with one.

The real deal.

Phantom stopped in the middle of the schoolyard and placed her gently on the cobblestone. Before Sam could even open her mouth, he had closed his eyes and had disappeared into thin air.

Gone.

“Sam!”

Sam was still staring at the spot the phantom had occupied just a second before, when Tucker came over to her, still with the radio in tow. She shook her head confused and turned to him with wide eyes.

”H-he saved me, Tuck. Why would a ghost save me?”

Tucker shrugged, just glad that she was in one piece. Ghost and their intentions was her thing. He just made the stuff they used to catch them with.

“I havn't a clue.”

“You’re going pay for this, Manson!” it sounded from the chapel and Tucker and Sam could only watch, as Paulina made outrageous gestures in their direction, probably cursing them or something, before she ran off in tears and messy hair.

“My, my,” Sam muttered with rolling eyes and rebranded her tousled hair, “well, at least we established the fact that he’s real. Ghost’s real. We have a real ghost case, Tucker. How wild is that?”

“It might get wilder,” Tucker replied a little uncertain and pulled a leather bag from his shoulder. Sam was going to tell him they could make notes back at the dorm, but then remembered that none of them had brought their bags in the first place.

“Where did you find it?”

“On the roof,” Tucker retorted slowly and they both turned to stare at the expensive, but rather battered schoolbag, “I think it belongs to the phantom…”

Sam rummaged through the bag and found nothing out of the ordinary. School books, notebooks, a pencil-box of rosewood and a somewhat crumpled if not overly dog-eared Charles Dickens novel named _David Copperfield_.

Tucker’s puzzled look got a glimpse of fascination and greed as she pulled out a small blank pistol. He examined it in the same way as an archaeologist who handle old fragile findings and ran a finger over the guns red container along the sleek gun barrel.

Sam did not know if it was common for ghosts to bear arms, but left it for now, when she found what she was looking for and read the engraved letters in the bag's leather.

“D. J. Fenton,” she muttered lowly and Tucker’s eyes widened.

“No way – the quiet kid Baxter likes to pick on?”

They looked at each other and knew they were thinking the same thing. This was not only a ghost case. It was so much more.

A ghost had overshadowed Danny Fenton!


	5. Secrets are shared and the war is just around the corner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic.
> 
> Danny's mother had been sick since his childhood...  
>  _She tried to tell them she could stand herself, but the lungs refused to unfold again like they used to and she lost her breath._  
>  _Danny and Jazz followed apprehensive, while their mother was carried back to their compartment and laid down on one of the padded seats._  
>  _Danny gazed after his mother, as a wet cloth was laid over her forehead and the doctor opened her corset to place a stethoscope on her back._  
>  _The door was closed and he felt the urge to hit something._
> 
> And now the school's ghost hunters are on to him...  
>  _She found what she was looking for and read the engraved letters in the bag's leather._  
>  _“D. J. Fenton,” she muttered lowly and Tucker’s eyes widened._  
>  _“No way – the quiet kid Baxter likes to pick on?”_  
>  _They looked at each other and knew they were thinking the same thing. This was not only a ghost case. It was so much more._  
>  _A ghost had overshadowed Danny Fenton!_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys  
> my exsams are coming up and I might have to skip the next update, but we'll see  
> hope you enjoy
> 
> * * *

_Year 1913, the Caspár Academy, New Hampshire, USA_

Danny walked the school overcrowded corridor with sweat running down his back and the fear flowing in his veins.

He had managed to spot them first and outrun from them three times now, but he knew his luck would run out and then they would catch him.

They knew about his secret. They knew he was the phantom.

Danny had flown back to the roof to retrieve his bag after he had saved the black-haired girl with ink symbols smeared across her arms, but when he reached the roof, Foley had already taken the stairs down and that with his bag.

Danny had been forced to watch from the rooftop while the two had rummaged through his bag down in the schoolyard and uncovered his identity.

He didn’t dare go back to his dormitory as Tucker Foley surely would wait for him and Danny knew couldn’t show up for class without his books and notes either.

Which compelled him to continue on walking the corridor in the crowds anonymous middle and turn invisible when the school guard walked the corridors between classes to catch students with skipping in mind.

Danny knew he couldn’t continue in this way – having already gone as far as to sleep in the school chapel, but he be damned if he didn’t at least try!

“Fenton!”

Danny jumped with a squeal as the girl from yesterday shouted his name across the hallway and came crashing toward him.

Danny couldn’t fly his merry way or turn invisible with this many eyes on him, so he had to squeeze through the crowd the old-fashioned way. Plain elbows and punches with his fists.

He escaped through the crowded corridors with some angry cries and regrets behind him, but he couldn’t be bothered right now and bolted toward the school's stables.

There were more students in the yard and the path between the school buildings and horse stables, forcing Danny to continue his escape on foot, while the sound of two sets of feet caught up to him.

“Leave me alone, you bloody freaks!” he shouted behind him, but it didn’t seem to help and Danny slipped into the stable and ran through the building until he reached the ladder to the open straw ceiling and flew up.

He managed to pull the ladder up at the last second before the girl could jump up and grab the end of it. She glared sourly up at him and was soon joined by the groaning and sweating Tucker Foley, who looked as if the run would kill him.

If only.

“You two…run…like racing hounds!”

“And I’m going bite you like one, if you don’t leave me alone!” Danny sneered in return with a scowl.

Tucker didn’t like the sound of that and turned to the girl with the wild eyes and black braid. She pulled out a bag from shoulder without breaking eye contact with Danny and held the bag up where he could see it.

“Hey, ghost, you want this back?”

Danny’s scowl deepened. _Of course_ he wanted it. Don’t be stupid. His mother would be furious if he wrote home and had to ask her for money for a new bag and beg her to send the new school equipment from New York.

Moreover, it would only be humiliating if Vlad got wind of the fact that he couldn’t hold on to something as simple as a school bag.

Again.

“Are you dense, or have the ink poisoned your last braincells? Of course I want it back!”

“Then come down and get it, spook!”

Danny thought about it.

The worst case scenario would be them attacked him, but what could they do against someone who could phase through your fingers? They already knew he was half-ghost, using his powers in his human form couldn’t possible make his case worse.

If he got his bag back they wouldn’t have anything on him – the gun his mother had given him before he went to boarding school would be the only evidence they could use against him, and with it back in his care, he could simply deny their accusations.

At least… he hoped so.

Would people believe them if they walked around yelling he was a ghost? Danny's stomach made knots at the mere thought of that possible scenario. He would simply have to find a way to get them to shut up.

Easy peasy…

His imaginary confidence didn’t loosen the knot in his stomach and Danny sighed irritated. Hell, maybe he could just ask them nicely _…very unlikely, Fenton._

He flew down and switched from his ghost form to human form. His clothes and hair went from white to black and he stretched out his hand, “there, now hand it over.”

“Now, Tucker!”

Danny rose an eyebrow, as Tucker pressed a button on the machine he had hidden behind him in the hay and a high-pitched, but at the same time silent screeching, sounded through the barn.

All the horses moved restlessly and somewhere a dog barked. Danny felt a small ringing in his ear, but otherwise nothing. He watched from the converted radio to the two students and back again.

The girl deadpanned with a grimace and Tucker turned tentatively on one of the buttons to see if it would have any impact on Danny, “darn it! It’s not working, Sam.”

“Yes, thank you for your observation skills, Foley,” she snarled embarrassed and turned to Danny.

She rolled her sleeves up for everyone to behold her new freshly drawn symbols on top of the old faded signs from yesterday and then emptied a bottle of water into Danny's face a determined face.

“I adjure you, the pure and holy angels Michael, Gabriel, Shuviel, Ahadriel, Zumtiel, Yechutriel, Zumtziel…by 72 names I adjure you, you all the retinues of spirits in the world – Be’ail Lachush and all your retinue; Kapkafuni the Queen of Demons and all your retinue; and Agrat bat Malkat and all your retinue, and Zmamit and all your retinue, and those that were made on the eve of the Shabbat. The power of God compels you!”

Danny gave her a very long, very indigitated glare and turned intagible to get the water of, “I’m not a demon, thank you very much.”

That did not seem to deter Sam the least and she walked forceful forward with raised arms, “the power of God compels you, spook! Leave this poor soul’s body be!”

Danny put sourly his hands in his pockets and waited for her to be done with it. He was pretty much going to wait this one out.

Tucker shook his head behind her, “that’s not working either.”

”I know what I’m doing,” she replied angrily and all but pushed pressed her hands into Danny's face, “just leave the kid’s body and go back to the afterlife, or something!”

“I’ve never been to the afterlife,” Danny muttered sullenly and pushed her away, "and I'm not overshadowed. Look, just give me my bag and we can forget about all this ever happening. I promise not to haunt you for the rest of the school year and you promise not to telltale to anyone – and especially not my mother. Deal?"

Both Sam and Tucker gave him an odd glance.

Tucker came up to them with confusion, "why should we tell your mother? You’re a ghost, she must be long dead by now?"

Danny felt the irritation take hold of him and he snatched his bag from Sam’s unprepared hands, “my mom is fine and well. She lives in Yorkshire and are very much alive, thank you for asking, arseholes!”

“But, you’re a ghost!” Sam insisted still deadpanning and Danny scowled.

“I’m a _half_ -ghost – just...just don’t tell anyone. It’s not like they will believe you anyway.”

Sam had no comment, which was new and Tucker just snorted, “don’t worry, there is no use telling anyone about this. You right, no one is ever going to believe we actually caught a ghost and especially not if we tell them it’s only _half_ a ghost.”

Tucker and Danny stared each other down for a long moment, before they both started snickering.

“Yeah. That’s like the worst ghost story ever.”

Sam sighed annoyed by their poor sense of humor and pulled the sleeves down again.

Library books were full of shit.

“So what, you died only halfway?” she asked and crossed her arms, “how does the half-ghost thing work anyway? Is it a different species than normal ghosts?"

Danny just shrugged, "no idea, I've only met the whole ghosts and they’re not asking nearly as many questions as you."

“Wow, other ghosts? Like how many?” Tucker joined interested and even Sam seemed to want to know more, "have you ever caught one? Or helped one to cross over?"

“To cross over?” Danny asked confused and bend down to examine Tucker’s rebuilt radio, "if it had actually worked, what would this waffeliron- radion have done then?"

"The ghost Paralyzer," Tucker corrected, "it should have paralyzed ghost long enough for us to question it about its intentions and allow us to either defeat it or helping it to cross over with one of Sam’s spells. But as you can see ... it doesn’t exactly ... "

“Have you tried to fuel it with bloodblossom extract?"

Sam crocked an eyebrow, “bloodblossom _what?”_

Danny rose his own eyebrow in silent challenge, “really? Two ghost hunters like yourself doesn’t even know about bloodblossoms? My mom would cringe in her bed if she caught wind of this. She would be furious if she knew to kids ran around hunting ghost without real equipment like herself or any other respectable ghost hunter or huntress. You two should be ashamed!”

Tucker's eyes lit up immediately and he had to know more about Danny's ghost hunting mother and inventions.

Sam seemed more reluctant, but when the conversation turned to how to best defuse a ghost with concentrated ectoplasm, she jumped into the conversation and soon forgot all about her earlier plans for Danny.

When they left the barn, it was in a good mood and sense of something new.

Danny actually began to like the life of boarding school.

 

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

Nichols laughed boisterous from Danny's story and the boy even broke into a wide grin, who testified boyhood bygone pleasures and a youthful mind behind his aloof exterior.

"I mean it," Danny laughed, "we became the school's own ghost hunter trio. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis must have read one of the local notices of us at some library archives and come up with the idea to _Ghost Busters_. Raymond Stantz og Egon Spengler, is like spitting image of Tucker and Sam. The evidence can’t be denied, my good dude."

"Then maybe it shouldn’t be such a surprised if _the Phantom of the Opera_ had been inspired by Caspár Academy’s own Phantom to," Nichols chuckled and wiped a tear away, "I'll gotta admit that’s a boarding school tale I hadn’t heard before. Did you crazy kids really hunt ghosts out there on the boondock?"

“You wouldn’t believe it,” Danny assured with a grin and eyes that could easily have belonged to a twelve-year-old schoolboy, "there was this ghost we called the Lunch lady. She appeared out of nothing and began to haunt the school when Sam changed the school menu. Sam thought we ate too much meat and got cabbage on the menu – everyone except the teachers hated her for it, but no one as half as much as the ghost who had returned from the local cemetery and grave to change the menu back. The Lunch lady almost put the school in ruins with her meat manipulative powers, but we caught her with Tucker’s ecto-blaster and save the school. Of course, everyone thought it was the phantom who had saved the day, but it was the start of Team Phantom."

“Team Phantom,” Nichols muttered entertained and drank the rest of his coffee, "and nobody ever noticed that the Phantom always hung out with Manson and Foley when Fenton wasn't in sight?"

Danny shrugged, "people don’t see half of what’s happening around them and when they finally see something strange, they tell themselves that what they saw probably wasn’t what they thought and convinces themselves to stop thinking about it. People are strange."

Nichols nodded to himself, the boy had probably right.

Nichols to had been about to convince himself back in the kitchen that all of this was just a scam – a huge reality show, where his fellow officers and an audience was going to see for how long you could fool Nichols, before the host would shower him in cheap confetti and point out all the hidden cameras.

Then they would probably hand him a check and everyone would laugh at the joke.

That would have made more sense than this, really.

To accept the fact that a real specter was sitting in his interrogation room and stripped off his life story in front of him was a hard brick to swallow. Nichols couldn’t help but smile by the sight of the young adult in front of him.

Watching Danny laugh and crack jokes like that…it was like seeing an old man revitalize his greatest moments and share the accomplishment that had surpassed him in his youth.

Danny seemed to have awakened from some kind of daze and he looked more like the young man his appearance made him appear, than just a few hours ago when he had been brought into the station.

Nichols smiled while Danny continued his story and poured him some more coffee. Danny almost forgot to drink his coffee with all the things he suddenly had to tell.

"And then there was the Box-ghost. He was the ghost of a deceased removal man and had to haunt all of the stores that sold something that just resembled a square container. He always followed us around and had to be banished once a month, but I just think he haunted us because we were the only mortals who ever gave him just the slightest attention. He was never really good at haunting people, actually the worst ghost I've ever met. We finally got him to cross over when Tucker convinced him that the universe was shaped like a giant square and that it would shrink a little bit every year. Apparent, the thought that he haunted and lived in an everlasting box that would one day encapsulate the world completely, was an idea that finally gave The Box-ghost peace. Some years later, I actually heard a professor telling something about the universe’s complexion and but that it actually was round and shrinking a bit every year. Who would have thought Tucker would turn out to be right in a way?"

Danny shook his head and drank his lukewarm coffee, "and then there was Spectra. Penelope Spectra. She turned young from sucking people's vitality and was probably one of the first real dangerous ghost we came across."

"Sounds like a vampire," Nichols replied and Danny just shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that ..."

Danny’s gaze became a little distant and had Nichols been one of the few individuals able to read thoughts, he would have relived one of Danny’s darker memories.

Spectra had shown interest in the fourteen-year-old Danny at her arrival to the school and started something that would prove to be the beginning of something that would change Danny’s life forever.

He shuddered as he recalled her hand running through his hair with long sharp nails. Filling his nostrils with the heavy perfume that seemed to hang in her teaching office as a disease.

Potpourri and blood.

Danny's fear and uncertainty about his family and effort had been like a spa treatment to the ghost and her hunger had slowly moved into the light. He remembered the smell of her bosom, the crimson hair, the hands on his shoulders and the bright red smile.

The piano lessons laced with an undertone of something dangerously mature. An innocent hand on his back had lowered over time. The piano chair seeming smaller and smaller for each lesson. Her lips whispering in his ears.

Danny knew he had been too polite for too long. Should have dropped the god boy act and just told her to back of like he had wanted to.

But the misery only growing after their lessons seemed to have bound him to her, made him addicted to her care, made him believe she was the only one who did and tolerated her advancing caresses.

Danny's first encounter with the sexuality of adulthood have met him when he had first entered the new piano teacher’s classroom.

He had learned to play a few bars on the piano, but moreover, he learned that women were more than just the little brave princesses who gave heroes a kiss on the cheek from his shilling novels and fantasy books, or the evil old hags, easily recognized by their evil demeanor and ugly appearances as witches, who had to be defeated.

It had been a cruel way to learn that things weren’t always divided in black and white or easy to tell only by appearance. The memory of Miss. Spectra would haunt Danny far into his youth and confuse him in more ways than one.

If he closed his eyes, he could still see her red lips in front of him ...

_“Play the line again, Danny. Don’t fall out of synch this time, you clumsy boy.”_

_“Yes, ma’am,” Danny answered and tried to ignore the hand massaging his thigh, the nails sharp even through the material of his school uniform. His fingers moved over the keys and became tentative when she leaned on him and began playing with a lock of his hair._

_The hand on the inside of hiss thigh moving higher up. He hit the wrong key and melody turned strident._

_“Oh no, Danny, you did it again. What am I to do with you?”_

_Danny felt his breathing becoming shallow and his thirteen-year-old heart beat a second time when she ran a red fingernail across his cheek._

_“Sorry, Miss., my hands are cold and gets…clumsy…Miss? Why is it always cold in here? I can see my own breath!”_

_She laughed charmingly and pressed closer to him on the piano chair, her soft chest feeling cold against his arm._

_“I like it cold, sweetie, makes the mind sharp and the blood rush to the cheeks…such pretty cheeks you have. Such big blue eyes…”_

_The hand moved further up and Danny's eyes dilated in alarm, “M-Miss?”_

_“Just what am I going to do with you? What am I going to do…?”_

_The hand with the red fingernails reaching a point on Danny's thighs where he knew for sure that he couldn't take this anymore and he grabbed her hand before it could reach its goal, “don’t…please don’t touch me anymore…”_

_The suffocating perfume showered him as she leaned forward with red lips and sweet breath, “hmm, you sure that’s what you want, Danny-boy?”_

_Danny's body jumped when she bit his neck and he pressed his hands against her chest, “get away from me!”_

The battle between them had been the worst in Danny's childhood, or more precisely, the end of it.

Spectra seemed to have become a new milestone of his youth. Maybe even his adult life. Danny had just wanted to get away from her and she had seized him with a laugh. Feeding of his anger, fear, and confusion. His misery and childish insecurities, shaken to a point where he couldn’t help but to respond upon his instincts.

And one of the instincts had activated his ice powers.

Spectra’s green eyes had widened in bottomless fear, when the ice had crept over her body, frozen her hair, red dress and finally heels. Danny had stared up on ice statue above him, this sculpture who had once been a ghost and his piano teacher.

The weight had soon become too much for him and when Spectra hit the floor, she was shattered into a thousand pieces. He had crushed her and it had gone too quickly for him to understand what had just happened.

Like the sudden death and vanish of Penelope Spectra, his own ice powers had disappeared just as quickly again and would first return many years later, when his had almost forgotten all about them.

Had forgotten who he was.

He shivered and camouflaged his discomfort by drinking from the cup again and Nichols placed a cigarette in his mouth.

Danny watched the cigarette with eyes the officers wasn’t sure how to decipher and Nichols took it out to speak clearly, "hey, you don’t mind I take a little smoke, do you?"

"No," Danny replied, watching the smoke rising from the now ignited cigarette, "not anymore."

That got Nichols interest to increase and he removed the cigarette from his lips, "then you continued to be friends and make the world a less haunted place until graduation?"

"Not exactly," Danny replied, now much sober than before and played with the edge of his cup, "I left the school to go celebrating the holyday at Tucker’s home that Christmas without asking my mom. She was extremely angry when she found out about it, but I had already left and paid the ticket. She couldn’t really do anything about it without making a scene and that was something frowned upon back then.”

Danny clicked his tongue, “Mr. And Mrs. Foley was well pleased with their son finally becoming acquainted with someone from the white upperclass and when they found out that I was the great Vladimir Masters’ successor, there was no limits of how welcome I was in their mansion. I spent the whole summer and the season with Tucker and continued to celebrate the holidays with the Foley family right up until I turned fourteen. When we were ready to leave for summer, but then Mr. Masters sent us off on an educational journey. He and my family seemed to have caught the hint and come to understand that I would continue to stay away with or without their consent. I wasn’t going to take the offer, but Tucker had never seen more than the states and begged me to accept the tickets. I guess I could bend my ego for the sake of my friend and accepted the offer.”

Danny made a face and Nichols could easily imagine a younger Danny making the exact same expression in front of his stepfather before accepting the tickets.

Danny leaned back into his chair, lost in the tale.

“We traveled with the best of necessities of course and he sent us a tutor along as our guide. Rich bastard. I thanked him with a letter that I knew my mother would have liked me to, but I neither saw nor spoke to her or Jazz for two years. I saw most of Europe along with Tucker that summer and we decided to do it again next year and at that trip we brought Sam along. The three of us decided to make it a tradition, but ... it wasn’t meant to be at the third summer."

Nichols could hear another tragedy was at stake and stubbed his cigarette. Danny looked down at the battered table and was silent for a few seconds before he finally raised the blue eyes. Nichols expected to see tears, but Danny's eyes were just blank.

Nichols understood.

The boy had no more tears to shed for this world.

"When I turned fourteen the war broke out in Europe. The letters I’d received regularly from Yorkshire in England, stopped after my fifteenth birthday and for a long time I heard nothing. It wasn’t until five months later that I was called to the principal’s office and handed a telegram. Jazz had sent me a single ticket and five small words. _’Mom is sick. Come home.’”_


	6. Not all wanders are lost – some are just late for the train

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny finds friendship in a hopeless place and decides to use his powers for good.  
>  _Danny just shrugged, "I've only met the whole ghosts and they’re not asking nearly as many questions as you."_  
>  _“Wow, other ghosts? Like how many?” Tucker joined interested and even Sam seemed to want to know more, "have you ever caught one? Or helped one to cross over?"_  
>  _“To cross over?” Danny asked confused_
> 
> But you can only stray from home for so long...  
>  _Nichols could hear another tragedy was at stake. Danny looked down at the battered table and was silent for a few seconds before he finally raised the blue eyes. Nichols expected to see tears, but Danny's eyes were just blank._  
>  _Nichols understood._  
>  _The boy had no more tears to shed for this world._  
>  _"When I turned fourteen the war broke out in Europe. The letters I’d received regularly from Yorkshire in England, stopped after my fifteenth birthday and for a long time I heard nothing. It wasn’t until five months later that I was called to the principal’s office and handed a telegram. Jazz had sent me a single ticket and five small words. **’Mom is sick. Come home.’”**_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!!!  
> despite exams and deadlines i made it! hope you like it and as always - comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1915, an inn near Norwich, England_

**_“Mom is sick. Come home.”_ **   

 

The grey English weather threw its heavy cotton clouds across the sky like a curse.

Although this gray vision filled Danny’s heart with a long-lost sense of belonging on top of the many months of homesickness, the gray skies and rainy view wasn’t further elevating after ten days of travel none stop.

He had packed his bag the same day as he had received the telegram from Jazz and got a lift with the principal's own car to New York, with ticket and bag in hand.

The harbor had been big and noisy and filled with soldiers, who either had to return to the border or come home on furlough. Danny had been one of the only few young men dressed in civilian clothes and felt immensely visible amidst the crowd of uniforms.

Two girls had handed him a white feather with judging eyes and Danny had tried to explain he wasn’t old enough to join the army, but that didn’t seem to help one bit. He had walked to the ship with their shouts of “coward!” behind him and found his cabin.

Vlad's ticket had gotten him a luxury cabin, which Danny, for once, had been grateful for.

Getting meals served in his private lounge meant he didn’t need to eat in the restaurant and risking falling into conversation with any lone travelers like himself or those feather girls again.

Not that he couldn’t be social, but the telegram haunted him still and had driven his thoughts out where it didn’t require interference from extraneous elements. Danny was worried about his mother, knew that she wasn’t exactly young anymore.

Not to mention her illness had taken a turn for the worse, if Jazz’s letters was anything to go by.

Danny recalled how his mother had been too sick to say goodbye to him on the stairs, at his departure last Christmas holidays two years ago and Danny wondered if she ever left her room anymore.

The bad conscience about not having answered her last letters and the fear of the worst, continued to torment him all the way to the port of Liverpool.

The journey had taken ten days and he could then step onto land and find himself greeted by the English rain that turned everything into gray slush.

The worst should have been over on his journey, but the weather soon turned out to be the least of his problem. The railway station suddenly proclaimed that all the civilians was to find transportation elsewhere.

Because of the rearmament problematics at the battle of Loos, the trains had been confiscated for soldiers' use only and civilians had to travel through the country via small buses, post office coaches or private cars.

It would take several hours for him to arrive by train, but by wheels it would only become a few extra days and since the weather wasn’t exactly charming, Danny decided to forget all about flying with suitcase and bags in tow.

Instead he decided to take one of the vacant seats in the first and best post coach to Yorkshire.

It turned out to be a mistake.

Now with a week's delay, he could stare out at the local inn's misted window with the prospect of yet another bumpy ride later this morning, full of plaintive fellow passengers, humid seats, and constant stop.

Stops where all men would be forced to have to work in the mud to get the post coach out of one of the numerous mud-holes the English small roads seem to have built its foundation on.

Danny hadn’t been able to close an eye all night because of his concerns and irritation. Not to mention the bad habit of phasing through the bed when he had insomnia. In short, he had no energy and hung his head over the remains of his breakfast.

The host had taken overprice, which wasn’t a problem with the money Vlad had sent him, but it still nagged Danny that someone could find it in themselves to exploit desperate travelers need with ‘wartimes’ as an excuse.

Danny had debated on whenever he should fly or not, but the problem was he didn’t have a clue where he was anymore and if he got lost he would probably go kill himself.

The only assurance of getting to Yorkshire, was the drivers word and since several of the other passengers was going to the same station as him, Danny was pretty sure he would get there on time.

Eventually…

Danny threw a side-glance to the folded newspaper under the half-finished plate, but couldn’t bear to read news anymore. It was still the same. War there, war here. Moved frontiers, rearmament, fallen, defeated, blah blah blah. It was all the same to Danny.

Sam would surely be angry at him for not worrying about his own country's policy issues, but Sam had always been the politic deliberately of the gang.

Danny smiled at the thought of the protests she had tried to get up and going on the school and the prohibition of swan-quill pen, she had tried to abolish from the classroom, since the swan was listed as a protected species.

Tucker would probably just have asked him about the photos in newspaper.

Tucker had taken a keen interest in photography and its technology these days and Danny had made it a birthday present, to walk him down to the local village nearby the school to see the local photographer.

Tucker had bugged the poor man the entire evening, begging him to explain everything and show all his techniques, until the man had given up and let Tucker take all the pictures he wanted with the band new Kodak camera, as along as Danny was paying for expenses.

They had behaved terrible, but it had been fun and that counted more in Danny's mind. He ignored the newspaper and instead opened the book Sam and Tucker had given him for the trip and he found the page he had reached in _‘Frankenstein’_.

With the warm thoughts about his friends and his nose in his book, Danny barely noticed that the door to the inn had opened and a man stepped inside.

Danny would probably have forgotten all about the man, dreaming on about mad scientists and stitched human remains near the window, had it not been for the thin puff of blue mist that escaped his lips.

Danny straightened up and looked around. Expected a ghost appearance.

When he didn’t spot a transparent specter or howling ghost at first, he turned around in confusion to investigate and caught sight of the man. It was a man of undetermined age. High, but not a giant, thin, but not too thin.

He looked intellectual with his goatee, narrow face and glasses, but the heavy jacket and pointed shoes woke no recognition in the eyes of Danny. It wasn’t possible for him to pin point where the man came from or his nationality.

The cut of the jacket seemed hopelessly outdated and the man wasn’t even wearing a hat, but had used his scarf as shelter from the rain, which was only something usually saw among women in this part of the region.

Danny followed the unknown man's path with his eyes to the open fireplace, where he passed without as much as to stop and hang his jacket to dry or warm his hands near the fire.

Another oddity.

On second glance, Danny discovered that the jacket wasn’t even soaked or as much as affected by rain. It seemed completely untouched, but still worn in a style that woke a premonition within Danny.

His assumptions were confirmed when the man shortly gazed in Danny's direction and a glimpse of red shone through the shiny spectacle lenses. Danny swallowed, the man was a ghost.

Danny continued to stare down the ghost back, when the ghost suddenly turned around and returned his stare. Danny hurried to act as nothing and make it look as if he had been reading the whole time, but there was no fooling around this ghost.

“Say, aren’t you a little too young to travel alone?”

Danny eyed the specter, the man had taken the seat at his table with something that looked like mild interest. But you never knew. Normally, ghosts showed their intentions right away, but Spectra had been different.

Maybe it was the same case here.

Danny scowled, his pride hurt a bit. He knew he was a late bloomer, but he couldn’t possibly be taken for a child anymore. He was fifteen for crying out loud!

“I’m old enough to take care of myself, sir. _Are you?”_

The ghost flashed a wicked grin that revealed that all his teeth were sharp as a shark bite. Danny didn’t let it affect him, he had seen the dentition that was worse. The ghost gestured to the host and Danny frowned at his table partner skeptically.

Ghosts didn’t usually eat, since they were obviously dead and when they did, it was either to be social, matched their ghostly obsession – like Youngblood with his candy or the Lunch Lady with her meat, or enjoying their own ghost food.

That the ghost chose to order a meal could only mean he wanted to pretend to be human – but no one suspected him of anything besides Danny, which meant the only other explanation to this strange behavior was to remain seated at the table.

He wanted Danny's company. Danny didn’t want his. Ghosts only meant trouble.

“What do you want?” Danny asked, not caring about good manners. The ghost looked at him for a while before he adjusted his glasses with a tired countenance.

"Nothing you can offer me, but I must admit I'm curious. If you're old enough to travel alone, shouldn’t you be out there and fight for your country then? Serve the motherland, as they say?"

Danny sighed exasperated, "I'm not old enough to sign up, sir, but even if I was, I'm not sure it would make any difference to me. I find this whole war meaningless."

Danny knew it was an unpopular opinion, especially among his countrymen, but from the piece of understanding Danny had been able to get throughout the entire debacle, it seemed to him that this war more or less stupid.

Yes, it was tragic that a Duke down in Austria-Hungary had been assassinated by one of his neighboring country men, but did the rest of the world really need to declare war on each other as a result? Just because they could?

"Interesting," the ghost replied lighter fascinated, "you don’t seem to be fulfilled by the same national pride and romantic for homeland I have otherwise encounter through my journey. How strange."

That caught Danny’s interest and now it was his turn to show conversation fervor, "you traveled far? Ghosts normally don’t move that far from the place they ... uhm."

"Died?" the ghost finished for him with a raised eyebrow and it dawned on Danny that he might had moved into a sensitive topic.

He had a lot of experience when it came to fighting ghosts and send them back to the afterlife or the Ghost Zone, but conversing with them wasn’t something he got the opportunity of very often.

Spectra had pretended to talk and take interest in him, but she had really just used him for energy and not for the sake of company. It was rare that Danny learned anything about ghosts personally, if culture or daily life in any way.

Did ghosts even have a shared culture? Common mythologies and systems in their own world? A common language and land in their world? Danny didn’t know. The only ghost he had known the most about had been Youngblood and he had told Danny he was the first to ever speak to him.

"We can travel far," the ghost continued and Danny forced his attention back to the mysterious stranger, "most ghosts probably prefer to remain at the site of their death, old memories and security in the known, that kind of thing. I prefer to travel, look around, living despite my death. Rather ironic, isn’t it?”

Danny didn’t exactly have an answer for that, getting more and more confused by this apparently benevolent ghost that had chosen to grace his path.

Danny tilted his head with uncertainty coloring his voice, "aren’t you…shocked?"

"I beg your pardon?" the ghost asked, slightly blithely by Danny's straightforwardness, "shocked by what, my little friend?"

Danny frowned, not liking the ‘little’ part, "that I know you're a ghost. Most ghosts see me as a threat when they discover I can see through their glamor. But you don’t seem angry or disgruntled the least."

"My, what an orthodox question!" the ghost clucking like an old man, though he couldn’t have been more than thirty when he died, "I was well aware that certain deceased individuals were sluggish, but outright to take you for a human? How embarrassing, you must certainly have been exposed to a little and few things, little halfa."

Danny didn’t know what a halfa was and wonder if the ghost had just insulted him, "a what?"

"A halfa?" the ghost asked surprised and watched him curiously, he paid no heed to the food as the host served a plate in front of him and continued the conversation as soon as the older man was out of earshot again, "half human, half ghost, halfa. Do tell, how does ghosts usually address you?"

“Well…they mostly call me ’ghost-boy’ or ’ghost-kid’,” Danny began cautiously, perhaps it had been mocking names? One never knew.

"Well, maybe it would be more appropriate to address you by name? I am Ghost Writer, traveling ghost and writer, I am pleased to meet you."

"Danny," he greeted and tried to ignore the cold clammy-feeling of Ghost Writer’s hand, "Danny Fenton, but among ghosts, I'm Danny Phantom."

"Oh, a pun," Ghost Writer noticed with a laugh and invited Danny for tea. Danny couldn’t really see why not and fell into conversation with the ghost.

He soon learned that Ghost Writer hadn’t only been a writer alive, but continued his profession as he was currently preparing a manuscript he called “history of the world”.

With his abilities as a ghost, he could be where it all happened without worrying about consequences like normal humans, while moving freely between the events of the world.

Danny had to admit it was an interesting occupation for a ghost and promised to read the books the ghost had published under pseudonyms.

However, he crossed his fingers behind his back as he came to understand that one of Ghost Writer’s most popular works was a Christmas poem.

Ughh. 

They continued their conversation back on the post coach as the travel company woke up to continue the journey to Yorkshire and Danny spent most of the trip in the ghost’s company.

It turned out that the ghost knew of those books Danny favored and had great knowledge about them and their authors. Danny soon lost himself to all the adventures the ghost could tell and forgot all about flying home.

"I was planning to travel through the air myself," the ghost told him as they had settled in a hostel on the last day of the trip and talked over a cup of rationing tea (all sugar had been seized by the army, leaving Danny had to drink his bitter, ew), "but there is something about traveling with humans that makes me feel alive and I have yet to see all of this land and the beautiful wet countryside. The rainy nights awaken a melancholy in me, even though I'm from more sunny regions westward. Maybe I died on a rainy night to the sound of the drops outside the window? Bent over a new work created by hopeless fantasy and felt my heart give up after the many years of stress and despair in the world of literature? Sick of reality disease and the suffering only medication can alleviate…wait, now I think I’m talking gibberish again! Ha ha!"

Danny smiled, he had come to learned that Ghost Writer had a bad habit of becoming sidetracked in his own monologues, but it didn’t do Danny anything.

He had often been told he was social awkward, but the ghost seemed to enjoy his company as much as Danny enjoyed his. But Danny had always been better with ghosts than humans. Ghosts were simpler, you knew what you were dealing with.

"Maybe you should come with me to Yorkshire, you could write an entire novel about the things going on in that castle, if it’s not the ghosts that haunts it, then is its crazy owner. Vlad is something out of this world, believe me.”

“Maybe I will, but I will at least accompany you to Yorkshire, Danny. I have often made myself the rule only to go there where my muse leads me and meeting a real halfa is itself something of a coincidence. You are one of a kind, little halfa, only two are known to exist."

"Really?" Danny asked, surprised, "you mean to tell me there's someone out there exactly like me?"

"And apparently right here in England to," Ghost Writer said with twinkling red eyes, "what if I came across this halfa too, what do you think the chances would be of that?"

"The same odds as if I met the person," said Danny easy.

A halfa like him?

Ghost Writer looked at him and scoffed with a smile, "I see you found your own muse, now there’s no other choice than to begin the hunt, my friend."

Danny made a face in reply, “don’t say it like that. Makes me sound like I’m some love-struck maiden to run after dreams. I admit it would be amazing to meet this halfa, but I’m not going to search for this person like some hunt! Anyway, I have my family to return to and take care of. Whoever this person is, it will have to wait for my part.”

His words seemed to go unnoticed by the ghost as he continued, "well, personally my muse is all around me as we speak. She's the happening, the great occurrences, the history that will define us and the human kin. I go where she goes and right now she leads me into the battlefield. I have gained a certain urge to follow the war closely and write about it – as I said, I am an observer of a certain proficiency. I cannot die this easily again, meaning I don’t need to fear the flying bullets or the color of the soldier's uniforms. They are all the same to me."

Danny nodded, but the closer they came to Yorkshire the more macabre and callous the ghost reasons to exist sounded. Danny tried not to make a fuss over it and focused on the joy Ghost Writer exhibited by his profession as a writer.

He wouldn’t let Danny read his manuscript because it would bring bad luck, as he said and Danny told him jokingly that if he continued to write the history of the world, his book would never be published because it would never be finished.

Ghost Writer laughed loudly by that, perhaps a bit more than necessary.

“I hope to one day become like the ancient writer, you know,” Ghost Writer told him as they arrived at the next stop, “follow the steps of the legendary nomad traveler and writer of the Ghost Zone’s secrets Sojourn. Just like him, I hope to uncover some of this world’s mysteries and travel this world to the end.”

“Was he a ghost to?” Danny asked, liking all stories about wanderers and explores no matter the world.

“Well, he’s a legend, but I suppose he was a ghost since he lived in the Ghost Zone, my friend. He is said to have cataloged every section of the Ghost Zone and wrote it all down in a journal. The very book of the ghost zone. Other called him the protector of the all-knowing eye, but I'll say that’s just something the Observants want ghosts to believe, so they can keep their powers over the zone, now that its king is defeated into an eternal slumber and the rest of the ancients destroyed.”

Danny recalled the ghost telling him of the Observants, apparently, a group of ghosts that had taken the power of the Ghost Zone after a long war of balance with the ancient ghosts.

In Danny’s opinion, they couldn’t be doing a very good job, since ghosts seemed to prefer running from the place and go to his world instead.

“What happened to him? Is he still around?”

“Unfortunately, none knows what happened to Sojourn,” he admitted with a sad smile, “but his journal is still part of the Ghost Zone. Pages drifts around the natural streams in there and are found occasionally by either ghosts or the humans that finds them outside natural portals. If anyone could be determined and powerful enough to find them all…oh what blessing that would be – or curse. Depending on the finder.”

Danny frowned, “how come?”

Ghost Writer just grinned, “it’s a legend and is in the past, Danny, better not to think too much of it – it takes the focus of the present. But if you insist to know I will let you know when you’re ready, like my book. Knowledge should be given in due time and not a second before.”

They arrived at their last stop before Danny's railway station when Danny finally gathered the courage to say what he felt he should. Two years ago, he and his friends had discovered a new power of his. A power that could help ghosts, rather than hurt them as his other powers.

“I could help you, if you wish.”

“You’re already helping me splendid with my new poem inspiration, Danny.”

“I mean to the other side.”

Ghost Writer closed the book he had been preoccupied noting down in and looked at Danny with his wine-colored eyes as deep as any stored bottle. It was moments like these, that Danny took the second to ask himself just how old this creature was.

Wondering how much these eyes had seen. How many years back in time his book had been started.

“I know you want to help me, Danny,” the ghost began softly, sounding more understanding than he had the rights to be, “I can understand you pride yourself of the gift to help ghosts like me to cross over to what you believe is a better world. The ghosts gossip about you, little halfa. Talks of a half-ghost that act as the bridge between the world of the living and dead. That you can send them back to the Ghost Zone with portals, but even more strangely.”

He leaned forward making Danny gulp.

“You can deliver a wayward specter his final peace with a special portal of yours. You can help them to rest.”

Danny looked away, more than aware of what he was capable of. Ghost Writer nodded as if he had gotten all the answers he needed.

”I thank you for the offer, what a kind offer, but I must decline, Danny. I love my work too much, it’s my obsession as a ghost of god’s good earth. Even so, it’s impossible to say if you really do help ghosts to a better place or somewhere far worse than this place.”

Danny felt a short stick of damaged pride. Like he would send ghosts to a bad place on purpose…but then again…what if he did?

He forced his doubts down for a second to focus on Ghost Writer’s words instead and turned to him, his inner turmoil forgotten, “obsession?”

“My ghost obsession,” the author taught extensive and drew the boy closer to himself with his knowledge, “when a soul is ripped from the live world and flung into the darkness, some give up and walk to the light, but others remember a feeling, a hunger, a yearning. They turn their back on the light and return as shattered pieces of their former selves, but even though they’re ruined as humans, the last hope in their hearts remain and leads them on. That is a ghost obsession, Danny, the last hope of a wayward soul. Forced to fulfill the last thing binding them to this world and achieve in death, what they couldn’t in life. It is a curse, but for some…a blessing as well.”

Danny shook from the severe horror of such ungodly curse, not seeing the blessing of it at all. If he had wanted to help ghosts escape this existence before, he couldn’t begin to express his urge to help Ghost Writer now.

But…where did ghosts go when he made them cross over? A sudden fear that the ghosts he had thought to have saved, had been banished into some hellish afterlife in mistake, made it hard to breath.

The ghost patted his hand to regain his attention, “If it’s to any use, I believe you send ghost to somewhere better with your powers. And even if I won’t accept your unknown gift, don’t cry for me, Danny. If any, cry for your own sake.”

“My sake?” Danny asked confused.

“Yes,” the old ghost whispered in the sleepy wagon, his voice filled with sympathy, “as a ghost I will one day follow my muse to the end and enjoy contentment, I will find the light and follow its glow to the other side. as I were meant to. But you, my halfa…”

The ghost began to lose color and became transparent. Danny didn’t tear his eyes from the ghosts, even when a cold object was placed into his hand.

Ghost Writer closed Danny’s finger around it.

“You may one day, many, many years from now and beyond any length of human life come to seek answers. Long after your loved ones have perished and your memories become dreams, you shall come to fulfill your own ghost obsession and see the light. But you will never reach it, oh half-human, you will never be able to reach the other side.”

Danny exhaled trembling as the ghost disappeared from sight, just as softly as he had come into his life. The feeling of his cold hand still lingering in his shaking palm.

_“That is your curse.”_

 

_Year 201, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

The cop decided it was time for some stronger poison and added a shot of vodka to the kid’s coffee, before he spiced up his own.

Danny had downcast his eyes, suddenly lost at words and who wouldn’t?

Nichols couldn’t for his life believe the knowledge of the kid’s own immortality had been handed to him this insensitively. That was way to brutal for the ears of a fifteen-year-old. Hell, it would have been wrong no matter what age it would have been served at.

The fact was, that this Ghost Writer had been way out of line and Nichols felt the urge to beat up the asshole. It didn’t matter he was almost hundred years too late to do it, ghosts were immortal to, right?

“Hey,” he barked and made the young man look up with dull eyes, “I know he was right about you being an immortal and all that, but don’t believe that bullshit about never getting to the other side or that your powers might have send ghost to some hell spot, kid. I’m sure your gonna reach some better place just like the rest of us, no problem. Don’t trust stray authors who can’t even figure out how to put a limit on his own work. Those sneaky bastards aren’t to be trusted, Danny.”

Danny just sighed and looked down his empty hands, which reminded Nichols…

“What did he give you?”

Danny looked up, “huh?”

“You said he placed something into your hand, what was it? Money? A book?”

“A key,” Danny replied, “I didn’t know to where, that discovery took some years to figure out. But one thing was for sure, that key was ghostly and not of this world. I kept it in a chain in my ghost form from that day of. Forgot about it little after little until the day that I needed it again.”

Nichols waited for the kid to elaborate, but Danny didn’t, “you gonna tell me or what?”

“Maybe later,” Danny offered, “now isn’t the time for that part of the story, but don’t worry I’ll get to it.”

“Fine,” Nichols sulked a little disappointed, but then got his better mood back on, “as long as you stop looking like some kicked puppy over there. Man-up, kiddo, you’re supposed to be an immortal hundred-year-old half-ghost. Still can’t believe your twice my age, makes me feel young as a child again.”

A soft smile crept onto Danny’s face and the old cop pushed the spiced cup further into the kid’s hand. Encouraging him to drink it. Danny did and Nichols leaned back with his own cup, still mad about the ghost, but glad he could bring a smile to Danny’s face again.

“That’s right, take a sip and lift you spirit a bid.”

Danny rose his eyebrows in mild amusement and the cop suddenly realized his own mistake, “oh shit, no pun intended, nor the rhyme – just ignore me and continued on the story.

“Well, despite the fact that I just burn the booze off before it can have an impact on me, I’d say this coffee is to _die_ for. Thank you.”

Nichols ignored the fact that Danny had humor like a trashcan in favor of that strange piece of information the crackling immortal had delivered before the pun.

“You… burn it? Is it a metabolism thing?” he asked and felt the warmth of the vodka run down his throat and heat him up a little. Danny ended his self-delivered amusement and snorted.

“Yeah, apparently being a half-ghost gives you a high metabolism – look at it like this: you know how old timey cupbearer was hired by kings and other rich motherfuckers to teste their food to see if it was poisoned? Well, it’s like when those guys ate small portions of poison to build up the body’s immunity and become resistant to poison. If alcohol is a poison, my body have become resilient to it on a high-level tolerance, while real poison is another story. I told you about bloodblossoms, right? Turns out there’s a ghost version of that flower in the ghost world and its made into booze. They call it deathblossoms – pretty fitting, right? It’s like my poison, I’m not immune to that shit, I get tipsy from just one cup! If you drank it, you would defiantly die on the spot.”

Nichols was fascinated and kind of disturbed at the same time, but entertained the least.

He watched as Danny took the wallet from the table and started rummaging through it. He let it fall back to the table and presented a dried flower to the cop. It was a black flower with white leaves resembling a rose, but to small and closed to be called a real one.

It was pretty, no doubt, but the strong smell it emitted made the man cringed his nose in distaste. It smelled overly sweet, sweeter than the green ectoplasm the kid had drawn from his own ghost form and Nichols handed the flower back to its owner.

Danny placed it back into the wallet and exhaled.

“I know, I had to get used to the smell to, imagine drinking it as the only source of alcohol for the rest of your life.”

“You took up drinking?” he asked and took another sip of his coffee, enjoyed the taste of his non-ghostly booze that came in all kinds and flavors. No flower sap here, no thank you.

“A gentleman should be able to converse over a glass of scots and handle liquor with moderation,” Danny began with mocking British accent and took a sip, “well, that and the deathblossoms he liked to pour into my drink every time he felt like talking to me for real. His kind of _real_ at least.”

Nichols lit another cigarette, “who?”

Danny bit the inside of his cheek, not really feeling like talking about it, but at some point, he would have to rip open the lid all those hidden bottled up emotions and anger and serve it to someone.

And Mr. Nichols seemed to be able to stomach a major amount of emotional vomit. Maybe it was time to hand it all over. Hand over all the crap and years and shit that had tailed him up to this day and just tell it as it was. The truth and nothing but the truth.

Ugly and dark as it was.

As cruel as it was.

“Mr. Masters. My _muse.”_


	7. Life isn’t fair and neither is fate.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny strays from home for two years to challenge Vlad Masters and show his family his resentment to what they have become. He then receives a letter from his sister and rushes home to get to his mother sickbed. But on the way he meets the ghost Ghost Writer...  
>  _“You may one day, many, many years from now and beyond any length of human life come to seek answers. Long after your loved ones have perished and your memories become dreams, you shall come to fulfill your own ghost obsession and see the light. But you will never reach it, oh half-human, you will never be able to reach the other side.”_  
>  _Danny exhaled trembling as the ghost disappeared from sight, just as softly as he had come into his life. The feeling of his cold hand still lingering in his shaking palm._  
>  _ **“That is your curse.”**_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys!  
> I'm going to a War Larp friday and won't be able to post anything  
> \- so in advance your all getting two chapters - yay!  
> If I die in battle I will leave this fic in my will and force a lawyer to post for me  
> he's going to die of either imbarrisment or nausea from reading it or something  
> For the sake of his mind, let's hope that my part of the army find victory at the battlefield saturday  
> hope you enjoy!
> 
> * * *

_Year 1915, Highgate Cemetery, London, England_

**_“Mr. Masters. My muse.”_**     

He had been told it had rained that day. The day of yesterday that is.

Danny's knuckles turned white as he squeezed a bit harder around the bouquet.

He had picked it despite the discomfort the flowers caused him in his human form and he had been obliged to pick them up and transport them back to this place in continuing human form not to squirm in pain.

Bloodblossoms had always been his mother’s favorite flower. Not only because of the fresh smell and clear color that made as a light pink tinge around them, but the fact that they also served as ghost repellent and could bring a ghost to the brink of death.

Danny could endure to carry them in his human form, but only just. His mother had always had a bouquet with bloodblossoms on display in the house, to keep the spirits away, no matter where they lived.

She used to say they reminded her of their father. He had apparently been eating them as snacks.

Danny could never stand being near them or breath the foul sent they emitted. At least they were to him. Everyone else was unaffected by its scent. They even called it delightful.

He crouched down and placed them as neatly as possible in front of the mausoleum. Yesterday's rain had made all surfaces shiny and dark, but Danny would have preferred that it had continued to rain today.

It would have made more sense for him to stand in the rain in front of his parents' final resting place, than standing here in the sun and not knowing what to say.

Jazz stood behind him dressed in black and for the first time in his life, Danny could say that a dress didn’t suit her. Black got her light skin to appear pale and sickly. The red hair she had inherited from their mother, seemed dull and lifeless today.

Danny was still dressed in his traveling attire, had only been back in the castle for a short time before he had been told that he had come one week too late to tell their mother he loved her and one day too late to pay his last respect at the funeral.

Danny wished he could have turned back time, thrown all his suitcases of him and had just shot like lightning across the ocean and returned to his mother's deathbed in time. To hell with all the explanation and 'how he got back that quickly in a war zone' lies.

His face contorted in a mixture of anger and shame, as the long-awaited tears finally fell from his cheeks.

Jazz opened here arm and pulled him in for a hug. He knew she was probably disappointed in him, that he had postponed his return for this long, but right now she hid it well and acted as if there was no bad blood between them.

Danny cried against her chest and she sang one of the old lullabies their mother used to sing when they were children.

She continued to sing it for him when Vlad's driver drove them away from the old cemetery in London and took the long drive home, since all trains still had been withdrawn by the army.

Danny spent most of the ride leaned against Jazz, staring out the window and try to forget where he was. Jazz took off her gloves, but Danny kept his on to hide the wounds caused by the bloodblossoms.

They had been family for a little over ten years, but Danny still hadn’t gathered the courage or urge to tell her about his powers.

He felt a little shame of being happy that his mother had gone to our lord without being saddened with his shameful secret and the knowledge that her son was immortal. To tell her on her sickbed would have been evil as well.

Perhaps it was better this way.

He stared up at Jazz and felt his heart shatter a bit. He would outgrow Jazz in age and live on even after she had left this world to be with their parents.

He would still be here when her grandchildren took their leave and he would still roam this cursed earth after the war had turned them all to ashes. He would still live, wander living and breathing and in the valley of ghost, never to join them.

The tears returned and he allowed jazz to pull him closer, her own tears rolling now. But not for the same reasons as him.

They stopped to eat at a restaurant a few kilometers from the Masters castle and the host, who seemed to be able to figure out they were in grief if their clothing and sad expression was anything to go by, led them to a private sun lounge and served for them there.

Vlad's driver, who had secured the car was pumped and ready to go when they had eaten dinner, set out to mingle with the restaurant’s other guests at the bar and the two siblings got their privacy.

Jazz looked toward the forest bordering near the restaurant and seem to lose herself a little whilst admiring the autumn woods.

"Do you remember when we took off on one of Vlad's hunting parties and rode through this area? I was thrown off my horse even before the hunt had begun and mother gave us each an ecto-gun in case we should run into a ghost out in the field. You almost shot a hole in Sir Conneroy’s thigh with your hunting rifle."

A little giggle escaped her and Danny himself couldn’t help but smile at the memory. It had been their first summer in Yorkshire and the last summer before Danny started to show his hostility towards their host openly.

Dark thoughts mixed into his voice, “Masters shot that dear and forced me to watch as they guttered it.”

Jazz sighed and tried to conceal her irritation, “a gentleman should be able to handle a little blood, Danny. Build some character, you’re going to host your own hunting parties one day and need to be able to kill a dear of all things, little brother.”

Danny didn’t reply and pushed the season vegetables around on his plate.

A wrinkle formed on her forehead as she frowned, “and could you please just call him Vlad, Danny? It seems strange to address a man with his surname, when we have been living and raised in his care.”

“You have,” Danny corrected, “not me. Spending some holidays and summer with that gobermouch doesn’t make him my anything and defiantly not my father.”

“Danny –”

“He sent me to boarding school, Jazz. Even though mom wanted to tutor me herself.”

“But I though you liked boarding school?”

“It’s the principle,” Danny snapped and returned her glare, not going to submit to her on this matter, “If he hadn’t turned you all against me and forced me to stay away –”

“No one forced you to stay away, Danny!” she interrupted angry and slammed her hands against the table, making the crystal glasses and silverware rattled.

Danny had never seen her so upset before and was silent.

“I know this is hard for you, Danny. It is for all of us, even Vlad,” she replied gentler and kept his eyes fixed to get her words through to him, "I know you think this is all his fault and it's only natural. When we’re hurt for no reason, we’re often looking for a scapegoat we can throw our frustration and anger at. But this isn’t Vlad's fault. It’s not him who started the war that kept us separated across the water or the one who made mom sick, rather the opposite. Vlad offered to pick you up himself, but I trusted that you could get safely across the mainland alone and said it was better he stayed with mom. None of us could have predicted that the war’s changing event would take out all civilian transportation and that you would get delayed for this long."

She pushed his half-finished plate away and looked at him with eyes that begged for peace on his part, "when we get home, I would like you to behave nicely towards Vlad. If it hadn’t been for him we would have lost mom long before this and none of us would be where we’re now. I wouldn’t be engaged and be able to move into my own estate in a year and you wouldn’t have received the education or the opportunity to inherit when you come of age. He has only done us well, Danny, can’t we please have peace in our own home for just one day?”

He downcast his eyes after a minute, the shame creeping up on him again. What she said made perfectly sense and all her arguments were rational, no doubt, but his troubled heart still had some difficulties.

Letting go of old grudges was hard. Instead of challenging her gaze again like he usual did, he rested his eyes on her right hand and focused on the white diamond on her ring-finger. She followed his eyes and sighed.

"The engagement party was held a few weeks ago. I couldn’t reach you through the mail due to postal problems, but I and Dean agreed to celebrate the party before mom got worse. I wished you could have been there. Vlad paid for the party. It was very beautiful."

Danny would like nothing more than to serve a biting remark about what money could buy, but knew this was neither the time nor place for his sarcasm. He had missed his sister's engagement and their mother's funeral.

What else had he missed?

“I’m sorry, Jazz.”

“Don’t be, Danny,” she assured with a hushed voice and took his hand across the table, "mother would have understood."

He knew, but those words alone didn’t close the black hole that had teared in his heart. It would be many years before it would heal enough to become tolerable.

Danny felt like he should tell her about Ghost Writer and that he had allowed himself to delay in order to accompany the ghost, but let it be. He hadn’t spoken to Jazz in over two years.

He wouldn’t ruin this.

 

The servants received them at the doorstep, set out in a row like at an important visit and as the cherry on top of this formal ice desserts, the Lord of the house awaited them at the top of the stairs with his hands locked behind his back.

Danny scowled behind the car window and wanted nothing more than to turn invisible and just fly straight up to the room, that always stood empty for him on the family wing, but Jazz was right behind him.

Looking past the obvious risk of spilling his secret, Danny would be a complete idiot if he thought he could get rid of Vlad in a situation like this. Danny stared anywhere but man, as they got out of the car and was greeted with a collective nod from the serving staff.

“Welcome back, sir Danny,” the little housekeeper greeted and Danny felt a little more comfortable in her company. The old housekeeper had always been good to Danny.

“Hello, Mrs. Green. It’s been…long time since,” he greeted awkward. He wanted to tell her she hadn’t aged one day, which was strangely the truth and something nice to say, but he guessed it would be inappropriately and kept quiet for now.

The housekeeper simply nodded and step away to allow Vlad to greet the siblings.

“Daniel, how nice to see you again, even under these circumstances.”

Danny hadn’t forgotten the baritone the man possessed or the way he seemed to control and play every world like a fiddle in his favor, but his voice still made bad blood run though his veins like acid.

Made him act on his worst behavior. The pompous prick looked just as impeccable as always, not a silver hair in disarray or wrinkle on his three-piece suit. At least it was completely black today. No red tie or ribbon in sight.

Humble enough to show one sign of mourning.

“Vlad,” Danny greeted monotone.

His sister gave him a look, but the fact alone that he had addressed their host by his first name rather than surname was an improvement, if only a small one.

Danny's baby steps toward a ceasefire didn’t appear to have gone past the older gentleman either and a smirk slipped into his features.

“Jasmine, it’s late and I can understand you and dear Daniel have already enjoyed dinner. You must be exhausted, my dear. I’ll have Daisy and the maids prepare water for you and fresh up your room for you to go to sleep.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jazz replied and followed the maids and housekeeper back to the entrance.

Danny was going to follow her, but Vlad stopped him with a gentle, but resolute hand on his shoulder.

“Not so fast, Daniel. You arrived so sudden earlier today, I hadn’t had the chance to catch up with you, my boy. Mind joining me for a talk in the study?”

Danny would rather eat Dash’s old socks – again – than have a “gentleman talk” with good ol’ uncle Vladdy in that creepy study of his. But how to inform the man of his wishes without sounding somehow rude and break the ceasefire he had promised his sister to keep while he stayed?

“That’s very kind, sir, but I should probably go to my room and write to the Academy. I need to have my homework send before I get behind the semester.”

Danny though he had been smooth, but as always, Vlad turned out to be the velvet cake of those two.

“Oh, no worries. I have already send a letter to the Academy, warning them you will be staying her until our affairs has settled, so there’s no need worrying about that. I’ll have a tutor taking care of your final exams. Join me, wouldn’t you? It’s not like you have anything to rush to anymore.”

Vlad kept his hand on Danny and led him securely into the mansion, while Danny sheeted under his hand. Vlad just couldn’t let the chance go of commenting on his delay. He just had to.

If Danny’s anger was visible to the man, he hid it well and let go of Danny as they reached the study.

The door closed behind them and Danny felt dread form in his already battered chest, as Vlad gestured for him to take a seat in one of the heavy leather armchairs, while he went to the cabinet to fetch some liquor.

Danny could already smell the sickening sweet smell Vlad’s drink always seemed to spread in the air, no matter what he drank.

Danny had never understood this. He had smelled other men’s alcohol and never found the strange odor in their company. Only Vlad’s. Danny had come to the conclusion that the man added something to his bottles no matter what he enjoyed.

Danny looked up at the Grandfather Clock. At a quarter to midnight.

Perhaps Vlad wouldn’t make this long when it was this late already. Danny could fake a cold tomorrow when Daisy arrived with his breakfast tray and stay in his room until he knew just how he should tackle this home visits the best.

The unwritten rules of mourning in the social sphere prescribed that you stayed away from all social gatherings for at least three months, which would mean Vlad would remain at home until then and work from here instead of his office in London.

If Danny was lucky, the old geezer would have too much work to do and no time to concentrate on him.

He could spend the time with Jazz and pass the time walking in the woods far away from the building or go to the village nearby. The trick to maintain this ceasefire until he could return to school would be to keep as much distance to Vlad as possible.

If he didn’t talk with Vlad, he couldn’t argue with him. Right?

“I can’t believe I’ve ever seen you this quiet, Daniel. But I suppose its times like these we all show new sides of ourselves,” Vlad said and seated in the armchair in front of him.

Pouring a glass of amber whisky for himself.

“Times like these? You mean my mother’s _death?_ ” Danny sneered before he bit his own tedious tongue and remind himself the definition of keeping quiet and maintain a truce.

A facetted glass glided across the polished mahogany table and Danny caught it before it could continue down the edge of the coffee table.

He looked up with a scowl and was about to ask if Vlad had suddenly become teetotal or something, but the man was apparently holding his own glass.

This glass was for him. Oh.

Vlad's chilly midnight eyes kept a close eye on him, as Danny hesitantly lifted the glass to his face and wrinkled his nose at the smell. Surprisingly, the smell wasn’t sweet as first expected.

Danny could clearly smell the inexplicable sweetness coming from Vlad's glass, but Danny’s own seemed to have been spared whatever Vlad spiced his drinks up with.

He returned the man's unrelenting gaze and decided he wasn’t one to walk away from a challenge and drank it all.

He regretted it instantly.

Vlad snorted by the sight of Danny anguish and the boy struggled to keep the liquid down with moist eyes and suppressed chokes. It felt as if someone had set fire to his mouth and tried to cram acid down his throat.

How could people drink this stuff!?

Vlad didn’t even try to hid his amusement, as Danny recovered from his self-inflicted troubles.

“Despite your ever so feisty will to dispute in my presence, you never seem to fail to amuse me, son,” he whispered with a humored smile in the corner of his mouth and Danny scowled.

“Don’t call me son.”

Vlad simply offered him a glace in return and took a sip of his own alcohol. Poured himself some more and even refilling Danny’s. Danny wondered if Vlad just wanted to make him sick or drunk – or maybe both, that would be like him.

“What are you trying to do, Vlad? Make me vomit on your shoes?” he challenged, he would possible grab the opportunity should it shows.

Sorry Jazz.

“Don’t be vulgar, Daniel,” he warned and leaned forward with his drink in hand and a serious expression, “you are fifteen years old now. Even though you continue to act and behave like a child, you have reached the border of childhood, believe it or not, and you should be able to handle a drink like any other decent adolescent. It’s time you learn to show some responsibility.”

“To whom, you or this bottle?” Danny asked, already having it with this whole conversation.

Vlad didn’t take the bait, “your sister.”

Danny hushed and Vlad continued, “I respect the fact that you wished to stray from home to create connections and future associates. Mrs. Manson and Mr. Foley is both valuable members of the changing upper-class and only heir to great fortunes –”

“It’s not like that,” Danny cut in to defend himself, “they’re my friends, I didn’t befriend them because of –”

“BUT,” Vlad continued, completely ignoring Danny’s input and made the boy cower in his seat with his sudden growl, “I will not tolerate or continued to watch you stray from home only for the sake of straying. Your absence hasn’t gone unnoticed, neither by Jasmine or Madeline. It’s too late to change the past, Daniel, but it’s on time you take responsibility of your future and take care of the family you have left.”

Danny didn’t know what to say and the man gave him no room to come up with anything either as he rose and finished his drink.

“Go to bed, Daniel. We’ll discuss in the morning when your new tutor arrives.”

Danny left the study and walked the long way back to his room. The maid had freshened it up since his last visit and his luggage had been unpacked and his cloths hanged in the heavy closet.

Danny stared at his books for a second and reached out to touch the cover of _Frankenstein_ and discovered that he still had the half-finished glass in his hand. He must have taken it with him when he left the study.

He starred into the amber colored liquid and noted that his hand had begun to shake.

Vlad's words had hit him deeper than first expected and it angered Danny that after still after all these years, Vlad’s words could still have such an influence on him.

Vlad had always had an ability to sneak under his skin and confuse him to the core. Danny didn’t want to be weak or pass himself off as such in the eyes of others, but he wasn’t the one to strike first either.

Otherwise, Dash Baxter would probably have learned not to pick his fights with him by now.

Danny's hand lit up with green energy and he watched how the light played in the glass facet's cuts and created small diamonds on the floor and walls.

It reminded Danny of the luminescent algae he and Tucker had seen the Mediterranean Sea when they’d traveled around last summer. They had bathed among the small lights and sprayed sea water at each other in the moonlight.

Danny had formed small balls of glowing ectoplasm and sent them up in the air to shine upon them and increase the fantastic vision.

He wondered what Tucker would say if Danny told him that he had arrived too late for his own mother's funeral in exchange for the company of a ghost?

And Sam?

Danny could almost hear their voices and the thought of them got a lump to form in his throat. How was he ever going to tell that them he was immortal?

_It’s time you learn to show some responsibility._

The glass splintered against the white wallpaper and left a spot of whiskey. The spot drew long lines down across the wall slowly. Danny sneered in anger, not only because of Vlad, but because of himself.

On his own thoughtlessness.

His own damn curiosity.

His powers, the powers that had made him what he was without an explanation of why. No answers, no explanation. Why was he half-dead? Why was he a halfa?

Danny had none of the answers and the only ones who seemed to have them, was the same ghosts who either despised him or screwed around with him for the sake of their own amusement.

Just like Vlad.

He jumped startled as it knocked on the door and he recognized the voice of the footman Nelson behind it, “sir, I’ve come to assist you, should I come back later?”

Danny dragged a hand down his tired face. The life of boarding school had made him all forget about how it was like to have a servant dress and undress him every time he left or entered his room.

vHe debated what to do with the whisky dent on the wallpaper, but decided it could all go to hell. If Nelson told Vlad, he couldn’t be bothered. The maids would have to clean it no matter what he did.

“No, it’s alright, you can come in.”

 

Vlad remained in the study after Daniel had left.

He noticed that the boy had taken his glass with him and contemplated on calling him back, but let it go. He remembered how Danny's cream-colored hands had gripped the glass with quick reflexes and brought the content at up to his rosy lips.

Vlad suppressed a groan and pinched the bridge and his nose. _Not again_.

He grabbed the rest of the bottle and went to his private lounge where the fire blazed in the fireplace. He settled down in the nearest chair and tried to gather his thoughts and prevent them from wandering where they shouldn’t.

He tried to focus on the internal image of Maddie instead.

Illness had made her paler than ever and tuned the long auburn mane of hair blazing red as blood against her cheeks and slender neck. Almost grey at the end.

He stared into the fire and tried to maintain a healthier image of her, but before he knew it, the purple eyes had changed color and slipped into a blue hue. The fiery tresses darkened and turned black as ink.

It was usually a combination which aroused indignation in the man, reminded him of Jack and what the other had done to him, but something had changed with the years and the thought of those big blue eyes captivated him and he felt how they looked into a place in him no innocent should.

Daniel hadn’t changed since the first time he stepped into Vlad's sight, but the years certainly hadn’t spared the boy from change either.

Daniel had grown in height and lost the overflowing puppy fat that characterized childhood. Even under the many layers of clothing, Vlad had sensed the surprisingly toned and lean form Daniel had obtained, a strange change for a boy of his age.

If he didn’t know better, he would say Daniel had been going to military school, but Vlad himself had taken his education at the Caspár Academy and knew better than anyone that the only strength training the place had to offer besides horse riding, was the exercise young boys got from fleeing and dodging bullies.

Vlad had obviously foreshadowed that something similar might had overcome Daniel and shortly sent his three vultures to see how the boy was doing. He had been content to know Danny kept the bullies of his back by being creative and use that brain of his.

It reminded him of himself.

The boy's friends were perhaps far from preferable out of all the possible associates Daniel could had made at the school, but Vlad had to admit his two little cronies could turn out to be useful acquaintances in the boy's near future.

Although the old money had struggled the last few decades to keep the nouveau riche people and their business down, both in social and business life, it was obvious to everyone that the new money had proved more resistant than first expected and had come to take their conquered seats in the sphere of the upper class.

Even the politicians seemed to stand behind them now and Vlad excepted that the war would only turn thing further into the nouveau riche’s favor.

Danny had chosen to make himself acquainted with an old minority family; Manson and the nouveau riche revolutionary family; Foley – both would probably be useful for him in the future, Vlad was assured.

If Vlad would believe his vultures, he could even expect a future daughter in law with Jewish gemstone business in her dowry.

But despite all that, the image of Daniel beside Miss. Manson caused a bitter taste to rest on his tongue and Vlad sighed and washed it down with whiskey. He relished a little in the smoked flavor and waited for the deathblossoms to take their desired effect and calm him down.

Sometimes he wished he could be human like Daniel and enjoy a glass of plain whiskey without adding the ghostly addition to get an effect out of his drink.

Daniel's expression after drinking the entire amount of two fingers of whiskey at once, got the man to grunt in amusement. Daniel could act so childish sometimes, if not most of the time.

Now that he had the boy back in his house, he had to start knocking the stubbornness out of him. Find a way to break his thick shell and reach into the soft spot where Vlad could begin to mold and prepare him to take over his trading empire.

Vlad was perhaps immortal, but there would come a day when he could no longer pretend he was immune to wrinkles and be forced to fake his own death. Letting all his hard work go to waste and his corporation separated by random buyers couldn’t be tolerated.

Daniel was perhaps not his son by blood, but Vlad saw enough of himself in the boy to know he could take over Vlad's place when the time came. Likewise, Jasmine would marry into the Thornwood family in less than a year and become the lady she was born to be.

Vlad still intended to take care of Maddie’s children best of his ability as if they were his own, even after her death.

Vlad always kept his promises, cumbersome as they often turned out to be. Well, most of them anyway.

He poured himself another glass and felt sorrow take over again. It came in waves as the tide and made him loose orientation for a while. Vlad had lost many people over the years, but losing Maddie had hurt more than he could afford to concede.

Once he had come to know her those many years ago, he had been a little intimidated, seeing a woman working by Jack's side, not as his assistant, but as his partner.

His prejudice against the female gender had quickly been put to shame by Madeline's sharp wit and sense – and quietly, but certainly, he had lost his heart to her.

It was wrong of course, his best friend Jack's wife and all that, but Vlad had been young and enthralled. A dangerous connection to have and Vlad had beaten her out of his head completely after the accident.

Believing that she had died and he had survived as the only one, he had forced himself to forget about her in the hospital and focus on those new strange powers of his.

The ecto-acne and his body's inexplicable change had given him something else to think of and soon he had completely forgotten her in exchange of this new life, his powers had bestowed him.

With his family wealth behind him and the addition of further riches his ghost powers had gotten him. He had soon built up the power and knowledge he had always strived for, but never been able to reach and settled on his own lot in life as an untouchable businessman.

With secure influence in the human world, Vlad had soon begun to explore his options in the Ghost Zone and learned about his own limits and potential. Learning he was immortal had been nothing but nourishment to his ego, but it had its consequences, of course.

To start a family would only prove problematic down the road when he wouldn’t age and Vlad had progressively gained the premonition that he wouldn’t be able to make hope for an heir with any human woman either.

His concerns and plans for the future was miraculously solved when the telephone had rung a Sunday morning.

That shock it had caused him to receive a call and learn that Madeline Fenton was alive and well, had almost caused him to lose himself and his aspirations skyrocket. Madeline was alive – well, at little sick, but nothing he couldn’t fix with care and money.

She was alive and in possession of two healthy and young children. If Vlad had survived the explosion and ghost portal irradiation with powers as a result, Vlad couldn’t help but expect the same had been the case for the beautiful Maddie.

He hadn’t wasted time, but bought an estate over the phone, send his servants off to his new home and moved all his contacts to England in order to move the headquarters of his office there.

Moving to England wouldn’t be a problem and he expected it would be better to treat Maddie there with his knowledge of ecto-acne and ghost-irradiation, than to take her with him to the States, where he was known and a feared figure in the social circles.

Finding Madeline in such paltry condition and among such terrible company had roused his anger and he had taken the reins from her and lead her away from London's dirty center with more force than was probably necessary.

Unfortunately, her health problems had turned out not to be of ecto-character and as he had tried to coax the truth out of her, he had been meet with a great disappointment and irritation as he concluded, that no – Maddie hadn’t become a ghost-hybrid.

He was the only one.

The disappointment was quickly forgotten in favor of the good fortune her children would prove to be.

A young beautiful girl like Jasmine could get him any company connection and partnership he may wished in exchange for her hand in marriage and Daniel was attentive and smart enough to become the perfect heir with a firm hand.

Jack's family seemed to have been the solution to all Vlad's problems and he relished a little in the thought that this was the way the oaf would get to pay him back. Handing him his wife and children like a wrapped gift.

How thoughtful of you, Jack.

What especially had enjoyed Vlad was the fact that, despite having inherited his father's signature features, Danny had proved to be his mother's living image.

Both he and Jasmine had proved to lean far more to their mother's side than their father’s and Vlad wouldn’t have to fear having to raise a Jack Fenton in his house.

His ghost-sense suddenly warned him that he had company and he remained in his seat as three vultures phased through the wall and made their entre. Oh, yes, the second reason Vlad had sent his vultures to spy on Danny and his school.

Over the last few years an unknown ghost known as "The ghost-boy" had appeared a lot in this area and surprisingly fought other ghosts rather than haunt and seize territories, which was otherwise normal ghost behavior.

The small ghost interested Vlad and he had sent several ghosts against it to see how he would deal with them.

So far, the ghost-boy had turned out be quite the opponent and defeated all the ghosts Vlad had send against him and even proved to be able to take on challenges from the stronger ghosts that spawned in the area – but there was one thing that nagged Vlad.

The ghost-boy's appearance matched with Daniel's comings and goings at the school and every time his little heir left the school, the ghost would do the same.

It would seem that this ghost was pursuing Daniel and it had made Vlad wonder if it could have anything to do with the portal accident. Had a ghost escaped the old portal after the explosion and chosen to haunt Maddie and later Daniel?

Vlad wasn’t sure and wanted to see if the ghost might decide to show up here. If that was the case, he would investigate this ghost – _personally._

"Yes?" he asked awaiting and the leader of the three ghosts flapped a little ahead of the others with a menacing bird grin.

“It’ is as you said, Boss. The Ghost-boy have’ve left the school completely. Ve haven’t seen him there’ve for veeks!”

“I see,” Vlad replied, already deep in thought and planning his next step, “keep out of sight and begin patrolling. If he shows himself here, I want you to notify me immediately."

“As you vish, boss!” the ghost screeched and disappeared along with his fellow birds.

Vlad finished his drink and went to bed. Forced himself not to imagine Daniel beneath his own sheets in his room and tried to get some sleep.


	8. Take me to church and other places, please

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> The war continues and Danny is caught in a castle of mourning. Meanwhile, Vlad is watching him, for more than one reason...  
>  _The ghost-boy's appearance matched with Daniel's comings and goings at the school and every time his little heir left the school, the ghost would do the same._  
>  _It would seem that this ghost was pursuing Daniel and it had made Vlad wonder if it could have anything to do with the portal accident. Had a ghost escaped the old portal after the explosion and chosen to haunt Maddie and later Daniel?_  
>  _Vlad wasn’t sure and wanted to see if the ghost might decide to show up here. If that was the case, he would investigate this ghost – **personally.**_  
>  _Vlad finished his drink and went to bed. Forced himself not to imagine Daniel beneath his own sheets in his room and tried to get some sleep. ___
> 
> * * *

_Year 1915, The Masters estate, Yorkshire, England_

So far Danny’s plan had worked. Sort of…

As predicted, Vlad had been forced to work from home and take care of his shipping companies from his private study.

During the weeks, more than one of his secretaries and teams of company workers had arrived to occupy the guestroom of the estate castle and join him in the working progress.

It wasn’t unusual to watch gentlemen walking the estate like a train station with papers and maps in tail and Danny used that to his advantage.

The man had little no time for other than work, meaning Danny and Jazz didn’t see much to the man other than dinner, and even then, Vlad was busy talking business with his associates and left the siblings to their meals.

Jazz had been deep in mourning the last two months, not doing much other than walking in the estates park, visit the castle’s private chapel and read, trying to make the time pass and her heart heal.

But at the end of the third month and the official end of the mourning timespan, she began to become impatient and miss her fiancé and longed for the social gatherings. Danny felt the same wish to return to school and reestablish some purpose in his live.

But without a functional mail system under the circumstance of war, he had no way knowing how his two best friends was holding up with the ghost attacks back in the states and worried for them.

With each dark thoughts and desires in mind, the two Fenton siblings wandered the park alongside the tall garden wall in silence and slow strides.

Neither of them took it as an uncomfortable silence, it was more of a common understanding of peace that had settled between them at the loss of meaningful words.

Over the past months, Danny had stayed on his best behavior and tried and act as a gentleman, which had been fairly easy with Vlad out of his way and Jazz had been more than thankful, stating that she was proud of him.

Danny guessed spending time with his older sister had been something he had missed. With the loss of their mother, the siblings had drawn closer to one another and spend many a day recalling the small happy memories of their childhood.

Just as Danny had worked hard not to show his distaste for their host openly, just had Jazz been thoughtful enough not to mention the man during their little talks.

Their little bubble of shared peace was suddenly burst by the soft sound of a bicycle running on the stones outside the garden wall and the two siblings recognized the sound of the gardener’s calm whistle and walked a little faster to catch him at the wall’s pound.

“Oh, sir and lady Fenton, out walking in the cold?” the longhaired man greeted as he spotted them and jumped of his old bicycle to wait for them. Danny was the first to get through the pound and greet the man, while Jazz was slower with her large skirts getting in the way.

She could only thank Paris and God, that the women’s fashion had begun to demand lighter and easier dresses every year.

Vic lifted his cap and bowed excessively to greet her like some shabby gentleman and the siblings snickered.

“I’ve just returned from the village,” the man informed with his heavy scottish accent and tossed an orange to Danny.

The boy caught it effortlessly and couldn’t keep a grin from stretching over his features.

“Oh my god, is that a real orange?”

“Let me see!” Jazz added excited and lifted the citrus fruit to her nose to smell its fresh scent, “oh, my, I haven’t tasted a real orange in months – how did you get it, Mr. McHells?”

The gardener grinned proudly of himself, “lord Masters made a special delivery yesterday and brought a hole ship of these little wonders. Mr. Donald is going to make a steamed ginger-orange cake for tonight and if I’m as skilled in the green house as I pride myself to be, I might get a tree or two out of the seeds.”

They waved goodbye and Danny watched as the gardener took the last stretch down to the mansion on his bike. Danny continued his slower rate alongside Jazz, who started to babble about all the medical and health properties oranges possessed.

Danny did really listen, he was just looking forward for cake.

“When the war ends and I get my own greenhouse, I’ll make sure to have at least a third part reserved for orange trees alone,” she mused, excited by that bright future vision.

Danny bite his lip, “if the war ends.”

Jazz observed him out of the corner of her eye and noted his depressed expression.

“Don’t worry, little brother, the war will end and you’ll be back at the academy and see your friends in a year or two. They can’t close the borders forever.”

“I know, it’s just…” Danny sighed, “I haven’t heard from Sam or Tucker in months and what if the war raged on until it’s time for us to graduate? Then I have to stay and studying here in England and miss out on them.”

“I’m sure Vlad will figure out something,” she replied, breaking the ‘no Vlad mention’ and linked her arm in his, “anyway, what’s wrong with England? There’s Harvard and Oxford for you to study at. America isn’t all, Danny.”

“I guess,” he mumbled, choose not to voice the fact that only the states had a Sam and Tucker in it. Not to mention ghost to fight and a chance to train with his powers.

After meeting Sam and Tucker, Danny had found some sanctuary in the fought that he’s powers could be useful other than the obvious. Defeating and helping ghost to cross over to the other side and find peace, was something that filled Danny with a sense of fulfilment.

There were ghost here in England to of course and even a great deal here in castle of Yorkshire.

When they first moved here, Danny had at least once come across a pack of three ghost vultures, who’s purpose at the estate was unknown and even a little questionable, but they had never attacked him or anything.

The one or two times he had stumbled across them back in the years, they had just ignored him in their own old-men way and Danny had given up on getting to know them.

A friendlier, but not less annoying specter, was the Dairy King, who liked to blabber about his own royalty and the local cheese. None of them seemed threatening to Danny, but none of them seemed interested in letting him help them cross over either.

Making it a pretty useless place to act out his role as Danny Phantom. Danny suspected that there were more ghosts living in the area and maybe even estate, but he had never seen them.

Only to wake up in the night or been alarmed by the sudden drop of temperature or heat, as his ghost-sense would activate and leave his lips as blue crispy mist.

Danny guessed it was all good the same. Couldn’t have Jazz or Vlad knowing about his secret and risk getting exposed in their presences.

But not being heroic or helpful to the world of the dead in his friend’s company, reminded him of the less glorious side of his powers and left him cold and alone with his dark thoughts.

His self-hatred of the strange creature he had been born to be.

Jazz noted his distressed demeanor and took his hand, “the war will end, Danny and you will be able to go where you want and do as you please, but I’ll just like you to know that I will miss you dearly, little brother. I know I can be kind of hard on you, but you know I think you're great, right?”

Jazz smiled down at him and he returned her affection with a wry smile. She hugged him and he buried his face into her black dress.

“Thanks, Jazz.”

They walked the last stretch in silence, still hand I hand and Danny stopped as they reached the entrance to the hall.

“Just go ahead, I’m going to walk to the chapel,” he stated when they reached the door to the outer parlor and Jazz nodded, respecting her brother’s wish to pray in peace.

Danny waited ubtil she was indoor and out of sight, before he hid behind one of the naked bushes and allowed the two white rings to wash over him.

The snow and cold called to his ghost form in a strange way he didn’t really understood, but loved and he turned invisible, as he flew to the outer part of the castle that housed the private chapel.

He phased through the thick bricks and landed in the middle of the cold building.

The colorful mosaic windows threw diamonds of bright shadows in the setting sunset and painted Danny’s white form in a million of colors, as he walked to the altar and passed the white pillars and wooden seats.

He closed his eyes to the sound of the echoes his own steps created under the high vaulted ceiling. The altar greeted him with the carving of an angel with open arms, ready to embrace the viewer that behold.

Most of the candlelight he and Jazz had lit for his mother had burned down and he replaced them silently with new ones. The wick caught the spark of his controlled ecto-energy at the tip of his finger and the fire turned from green to red.

From ghostly to living.

Danny transformed back to his human form and took a seat at the lonely benches. Folded his hands and closed his eyes. The weight of his mother’s silver cross hung from his neck and left a cold mark on his chest.

Reminded him of the day his mother had kiss his little cheek with tears and wished him luck on his way to boarding school. Danny had begged her to let him stay, but of course, the one with the last saying in that decision had been Vlad.

Danny had loathed the man for it, but hushed, a little intimidated and scared of the strange man that had taken control of his life so sudden.

Danny scrunched his closed eyes in annoyance, not able to shake the man of him even when said creep wasn’t even present.

_Dear God, why must I keep being nagged by this waste of space? It’s dreadful!_

Danny exhaled and forced himself to turn a little humbler in the Lord’s house. Folded his hands and lowered his head.

_Mom. I know you might be disappointed in me for not getting along with your old friend, but…I’m not sure I ever will. I’m sorry. I know I’m being selfish and it’s selfish to be glad that you’re in a better place than your sickbed. I heard the servants whisper about your last hours a week ago, when I wandered the halls. You are in a better place now. I hope you're happy in heaven with dad and the ones we all lose to time._

Danny felt a lump form in his throat.

_I wish I could join you someday… I’m sorry._

Danny forced back the tears, made his prayers and crossed his chest. He led the light burn in its secure candlestick and left the chapel by foot. Not feeling like turning ghost.

He didn’t notice the man in the shadow as he passed the door and wandered back to the rest of the castle to change before supper.

Vlad stepped out of the shadow and followed the young man’s path from one of the windows, before he turned to the rest of the chapel. One of the vultures had informed him they had seen the ghost-boy fly to the chapel and Vlad had taken the chance to see the ghost for himself.

Vlad wasn’t surprised to see Daniel praying down at the seats, a common sight these days and a habit he had inherited after his mother.

Vlad was already certain at this point that the ghost-boy was following the boy, but when he’d reached the chapel, the signature had suddenly disappeared and Vlad had hidden in the shadow as a human to await its return.

Only to become disappointed. Daniel had made his silly prayers to an non-existenting force and left again, but the ghost hadn’t reappeared and followed him. Hmm.

The many unlit candles sparked to life with roseate flames, warmer and more powerful than mere fire and Vlad’s eyes shone red for a second before he wandered down the chapel’s nave with long strides.

He reached the altar and picked up the only candle to light with a normal flame. He observed the small flame for a second before he snuffed out the light with his thumb and index finger. The vax was still warm as he picked up the candle and he studied it for a while.

As far as he was concerned Daniel didn’t smoke and therefore not in possession of a lighter. The chapel’s own pack of matches was clearly empty, no new burned match used today or new pack opened.

Meaning the question remained.

How had the boy lit the candle?

The stick of vax snapped between his fingers and the ghost-hybrid ignored it as it fell to the stone floor, echoing down the chapels silent walls. The burn marks shaped after fingers on the candle had convinced him.

Daniel wasn’t only aware a ghost was haunting him. He was associating with it.

   
 

The slow hours after the dinner made their pace towards the night’s end and Vlad took a sip of his glass of brandy, as his work associate; Beardsley and Darcy spoke their opinions of the Government’s introducing of legislation to restrict housing rents to their pre-war level.

“A sad consequence following the Glasgow rent strikes, gentlemen,” Darcy stated and blew a huff of smoke. Beardsley chuckled drily and rose one of his thick bushy eyebrows, “yes, a shame such times of war should suffer further under stupidity of the bourgeoisie. Not to mention the strike was led by a woman, of all things possible. Some trollop named Mary Barbour if I recall.”

Vlad caught Daniel send them a short glare over his shoulder from the other end of the living room, where he and his sister chatted by the piano.

The boy turned back to show his sister how to play the piece he was currently at and as the lady Jazz had grown to be, she ignored the men’s talk and acted as she hadn’t just heard the mention of the word ‘trollop’ in her presence.

Vlad continued to keep an eye on Daniel’s back over the shoulder of Darcy and laughter or grunted at the right placed to fake his interest in the conversation.

He had spent most of the dinner observing Daniel in secret, trying to figure out just how long the boy had been in contact with this ghost-boy and not at all admiring the boy’s rosy lips.

Vlad really had to stop this nonsense.

His interest for his own sex had been a problem in his youth and shouldn’t continue to haunt him now that he had matured into his forties, for Christ sake.

If Vlad closed his eye he could still recall the first man he’d slept with and the disorder it created, being seduced by a professor and all. Jack had of course found out, inquisitive and presumptuous as he had been, but surprisingly, he hadn’t told on Vlad.

Rather encouraged him to stay true to his affaires than try to overcome them. It was one of the only things Vlad could still look back on and find endearing about the dead man. Jack might have been an idiot, but he had been an idiot on Vlad’s side.

Pinning after his son only made all these loose ends more tangled. Vlad was in no doubt that Madeline would have strangled him with the nearest scarf if she knew what kind of images that ran through his head when he rested his eyes on her son.

But Jack? Hmm.

Vlad wondered for a second what the decreased man would have hoped for his son – maybe becoming a scientist as himself? Vlad put a brake in memories lane just as fast as he had opened its gates and banished Jack Fenton and his boyish smile from his mind.

What the Fentons had whished for Daniel – or Jasmine, for that matter, was irrelevant.

Vlad was their lawfully protector now and would do as he pleased. Jasmine would marry that Thornwood lad and secure him his new shipping contract and Daniel would succeed him and continued his work.

End of story.

Well… as soon as Daniel bend to followed Vlad’s lead and the whole ghost-boy case rested. Which was why he now watched the boy as a hawk. Not imagining those lips against his fingertips...

He exhaled tiredly and hit the bottom of his brandy.

“The young lad plays rather nicely. Very adequate, Masters,” Darcy acknowledge as Daniel’s fingers ran over the piano keys and produced another sequence of a piece Vlad didn’t quite recognized. Suspecting it was something from the states.

It was rather charming, but the underlying tone was a little unassertive, showing that he had some difficulties with it. Daniel scowled, but ignored them.

Vlad smirked, “yes, Daniel sure has come a long way with his art since I first took him in. I’m thinking of finding a new teacher to polish his talent at the piano. Though I don’t have a carrier as a musician in mind, it’s always a delight when a gentleman has a gift and patience for one of the instruments.”

The boy’s scowl deepened, not even trying to hide it anymore.

Beardsley who couldn’t possibly be past his early thirties joined in on the conversation, “oh, yes, when I was in my young age, I used to play the flute as well. But back then it wasn’t deemed as very mannish for a gentleman to play an instrument at the social gatherings. Seen as an act of stealing the spot from the young ladies. They should be able to use the instrument to show their more artistic side at gatherings, one of the only ones they have.”

“Then I’m glad I grew up in the states, I can assure you art was simpler there,” Vlad replied and the two gentlemen mistook his tone for joking rather than bored and chuckled.

Vlad stubbed his cigar and exhaled the smoke though his nostrils. Glad that the time period of mourning would end this week and he could start working at his office in London again. Finally get these men out of his home and return to normalcy.

They had begun to annoy him and he missed his books.

“Speaking of the states,” Darcy added with the hint of a smile, “Jack Fenton should apparently have graduated there with you, if I recall correctly.”

“You may,” Vlad offered, continued to watch Daniel’s actions out of the corner of his eye. The music had turned a little shrill.

“Is it true that he continued to study the paranormal as a scientific profession? Hunting and studying the unseen world by all means?”

Vlad made a smile that could be taken as fondly, “Jack and his wife was scientists, yes. Jack might have studied the paranormal, but Madeline Fenton worked in the field of relativity theory and extra dimension studies.”

“Both parents were scientist? Mrs. Fenton must have been something else,” Darcy replied bewildered, “how unusual, quite the children you have adopted, Vladimir.”

Jazz grabbed her brother before he had the chance to open his mouth and add his part to the conversation. Unlike the two men, Vlad’s hearing was intensified by his ghost powers and he was able to hear every whispered word between the siblings.

_“I’m not adopted! And he’s badmouthing dad again.”_

_“Danny, you promised to behave – Don’t make a scene, please.”_

Beardsley seemed to have noticed Danny had some problems concentrating on his play and grunted amused, “well if young Fenton isn’t meant to be a musician, then perhaps you should see if he has inherited some of his parent’s astuteness in the field of science instead.”

Vlad scoffed by that silly idea, “as tempting as the offer seems, I’m afraid that won’t be necessary. Daniel will do just fine as a financier in my corporation.”

Vlad was midway in lighting a new cigarette when Jasmine lost the hushed battle with her brother and Daniel turned to them with a rebellion tone, “well maybe I don’t want to be a businessman.”

Vlad placed the cigar between his lips without a concern, having dealt with this debate with the boy many times before. He could only had hoped Daniel would be more considering in what company he chose to act tactless in.

Darcy and Beardsley looked rather disturb by the boy’s rude outburst.

“Then what _do_ you want to be, Daniel?” he asked in mocking interest and leaned forward with his cigar in hand, “a scientist? Or maybe musician as Beardsley here suggested?”

As expected, Daniel didn’t have a feasible reply. A second of doubt ran over his face, before the boy jumped to his eternal defense.

Sarcasm.

“Well for starters, someone who doesn’t make a living out of buying out other's hard work and crush other businesses out of power hunger,” Danny jeered and made his sister close her eyes for a second to regain her faith in this household.

But she supposed having kept a ceasefire longer than a month was a new record in her brother’s case.

“I see,” Vlad replied with a drawl and crossed his long legs, “then if that’s your naive understanding of my work, the hundreds of companies and partner, whose workers and families are depending on my single corporation’s consistency and security in wartimes, then I suppose it’s time I start bringing you with me to London to see for yourself.”

“I’m afraid I won’t exactly _fit_ in,” Danny replied, clearly stating what he thought of Vlad and his two associates, “and to make things clear, neither I or Jazz is adopted.”

“Danny!” his sister hissed and offered the gentlemen an apologizing smile, “you must forgive my brother, the loss of our mother is still resent and the wine makes him emotional. Please excuse us.”

She tried to push her brother in the director of the door, but Daniel wasn’t going to obey that easily.

“Our loss has nothing to do with me speaking my mind for once! And I’m not tipsy either!”

“Daniel,” Vlad corrected with an authoritative tone, “I don’t appreciate such language in the presence of guest, I suggest you sleep this off and come talk to me tomorrow morning when your tutor arrives with the new educational schedule.”

The boy stopped trying to pry his sister’s hands of him and turned to Vlad with confusion, “what new educational schedule?”

“The one you will be following from now on,” Vlad answered calmly, inspecting his gloves for non-existenting imperfections, while the boy seethed, “with the borders opening and closing constantly and the risk of submarines overseas, I’ve decided to educate you at home and hiring a Harvard tutor.”

Daniel looked as if he had slapped him, “you can’t _do_ that! I have to go back to the Academy; my life is there!”

“Well, now it is here, my boy.”

“You can’t make me stay! I’m not my mother!”

Vlad frowned, not liking his tone or its accusations one bit, “don’t bring your mother into this, Daniel. It’s distasteful.”

Daniel’s eyes made lightning and for a second Vlad could had sworn they’d turned green.

“Why!? Because you don’t want your business partner to know you took advantage of my mother’s poverty to get in bed with her!?”

Jasmine gasped horrified by her little brother’s words. She was more than familiar with heavy words being thrown in anger, but she would never had expected him to take such loaded ammunition into use.

“Danny!” she squeaked in horror, but he had sprinted off before she could get hold of him. Leaving the room in choking silence and a fuming Vlad.

The man stubbed his half-burned cigar and rose to straighten his smocking with an annoyed sigh.

“ _Oh, fudge bucket_ – You must forgive Daniel. As said, he is in deep mourning and emotional unstable, excuse me.”

Vlad left the living room with murder in mind and followed the sound of steps only his ears could catch. He didn’t know what would happen when he got hold of Daniel, but he expected it wouldn’t be a pretty sight.

Raising his tone at him? That he could take.

Humiliating him in front of others? That he _couldn’t_ take.

He took the first steps down the grand staircase to the open hall at the castle’s entrance and caught the sight of Daniel’s back.

Vlad reached the end of the staircase and was seconds from seizing the boy at the door with his voice and make him turn around, when his ghost-sense suddenly filled his lungs with hot steam.

Vlad’s eyes widened as Daniel’s form was changed by two white rings of light. The black tresses transformed from raven to stark white and the black mourning attire became as white as freshly fallen snow.

The white boy took off and phased trough the entrance at high speed. Vlad rushed to the door to open them wide and watched as Daniel shot through the night sky. Shot across the night sky like a shooting star, before disappearing out of sight.

Vlad lost his breath, “the ghost-boy is Jack’s son!?”

The many loose puzzle pieces suddenly came rambling down in his head and connected to an image of reason. Of course, Daniel was fifteen. The accident was fifteen years ago. Madeline had been pregnant during the fatal radiation; how could he had forgotten?

New possibilities awoke in the mind of the ghost-hybrid and he shook his head in mild amusement.

“Well, what do you know?”


	9. Danny learns new things and Vlad plots with his own knowledge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny finally tells Vlad what he thinks of him and unleash his anger  
>  _Daniel’s eyes made lightning and for a second Vlad could had sworn they’d turned green._  
>  _“Why!? Because you don’t want your business partner to know you took advantage of my mother’s poverty to get in bed with her!?”_  
>  _“Danny!” Jazz squeaked in horror, but he had sprinted off before she could get hold of him. Leaving the room in choking silence and a fuming Vlad. Vlad left the living room with murder in mind and followed the sound of steps only his ears could catch._  
>  _Vlad’s eyes widened as Daniel’s form was changed by two white rings of light._  
>  _The black tresses transformed from raven to stark white and the black mourning attire became as white as freshly fallen snow._  
>  _The white boy took off and phased trough the entrance at high speed. Vlad rushed to the door to open them wide and watched as Daniel shot through the night sky. Shot across the night sky like a shooting star, before disappearing out of sight._  
>  _Vlad lost his breath, “the ghost-boy is Jack’s son?”_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people!  
> I have returned from the Larp battlefield and my first exam  
> I've survived both and are ready to deliver another chapter for all you amazing people!!!  
> Hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1915, The Masters estate, Yorkshire, England_

The cold morning greeted Danny’s face with its pale grey light.

He continued to stare ahead of him as the mosaic windows came to life and graced the cold stone floor with its colorful motives of Christ’s birth and crucifixion. An artistic circle of a singles man’s dreadful life in all the colors of the rainbow.

Danny exhaled and watched as a warm huff of stem left his mouth.

With the snow and cold temperatures, it was hard to tell when he was in the company of a ghost or not, but the cold sensation down his throat was missing and Danny concluded that the mist was only his inner heat and nothing more.

No ghost-sense at the moment.

It couldn’t be more than six in the morning, but the door to the chapel opened as a guest stepped in nonetheless. Danny didn’t move from his spot in the middle of the west side rows and continued to stare down the altar as his sister sat down beside him.

Watching him with a mix of disappointment and worry. Danny didn’t know what was worst after last night’s outburst.

Being meet with her or Vlad...

Probably Vlad. Yeah…Vlad would always be the worst. Stupid jerk.

“How did you find me, Jazz,” he finally asked after a while and broke the silence without looking at her. Jazz sighed and scooted closer, obviously freezing in her expensive, but not very functional coat.

“You always hide in here when you’re angry with Vlad,” she explained slowly and watched him out of the corner of her eye, “guess I just know everything about you, little brother.”

Danny snorted drily, “not everything…”

Jazz turned to him expectably, but Danny didn’t offer any explanation to his words and left her to fill the rebuilding silence, “you know you owe Vlad an apology, right?”

“Like hell I do!” Danny snapped and finally turned to her with anger, “I’m tired of him trying to control me and take my life into his own hands – I’m not going to say sorry for something we all know is true, Jazz. You know it, I know it and he knows it!”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied sternly like she was lecturing a child, something he hated, “if you had been home and part of this house you would never have spoken such words.”

“No, cause then I would have been under Vlad’s sole like the rest of you.”

“If you had, you would have known that mom never slept with Vlad!” she barked and finally brought her brother to silence. He stared at her for a long moment, before breaking eye contact as the first and downcast his eyes.

“As if, the only reason he took us in was to keep mom as a mistress. He has always gloated over her and been creepy around her. And he hated dad!”

Jazz looked away and Danny tough he had won the discussion when she suddenly spoke up, “I won’t lie, Danny. I lived with them and began to think the same. When he didn’t marry mom, but kept us here, I feared that he had brought us here because of he wanted mom as a mistress. I went to talk to her about leaving, but…”

She turned to him again with tired eyes of aqua blue, “turns out I had nothing to fear. And you know what, Danny? He wasn’t the one to propose, she was. She proposed to him after a year because she had feared the same as you and me, and didn’t want to see us on the street again. But he said no to her hand in marriage. Wouldn’t force her to marry him out of desperation, said he rather secure a roof and help for a dear friend, than having a wife without feelings for him.”

Danny could only stare at her, no words coming to mind.

Vlad had…said no? Danny couldn’t believe it. That was like the completely opposite of the man he knew and had grown up with. Vlad wanted his mom – why would he care about her feelings as long as she was his wife? It didn’t make any sense to him.

“I’m not sure I believe it,” he whispered and Jazz rose an eyebrow.

“Would mom lie?”

Danny guessed not. A hard acid knot formed in his guts and threatening to tear him apart. The words from last night had seemed righteous to him just a few minutes ago, but now they suddenly turned cruel in his own ears.

Bullocks…

“That’s why I believe you owe him an apology, Danny. Vlad took us in when we had nothing and despite the low meaning you have of him, he never wanted anything in return. Yes, we could have made it without his charity, but I think we both know we wouldn’t have been able to keep mom for as long as we have, if we hadn’t come here and taken his offer of medical help. I’m not going to blame you for not being here, Danny, I’m just saying that he stayed by her side to the very last.”

The knot tightened and Danny felt sick. Sick with shame and self-hatred. He had really let their mother down, hadn’t he? Let Jazz down.

He hid his face in his hands to hid his meltdown, “oh god.”

Jazz just patted his back, “it isn’t God that needs to go back in and make amends, Danny.”

“Could this possible get any worse?” he groaned pained and Jazz winced.

“Uhmm, well…”

Danny straightened up, “what?”

“Well the thing is…before mom died, she asked Vlad to take care of us and made him sign some papers. I’m to be married in less than a year and therefor it would be silly to include me, but you’re still a minor and therefore in need of a custodian…meaning mom had him adopting you.”

Danny felt like slapping himself, “well…shit.”

For once Jazz didn’t school him for cursing, she only nodded with a matching expression of epic fuckup, “yes.”

   
 

Danny took a grand decision.

If he was going to apologize to the man and come clean, he might as well go the entire way. Right over the edge at full speed and put everything into it. Taking the painful crash like a man.

He was going to hate it no matter what, but he had fucked up and had to be responsible for his own mistake.

Instead of bullshitting it and only put half a heart into it and risk it fallen back on him like things always did, he might as well exaggerate and get it out of the world. Just right out. Just…out of his system and right down the gutter.

Give the man what he wanted and be done with it. Yeah…

_It’s time you learn to show some responsibility._

Ugh. Okay, all right – just do what he got to do. Vlad was probably going to kill him no matter what.

It was with heavy steps and bowed head that Danny made it to the study. He felt like vomiting and run, but knocked on the door anyway.

“Come in.”

Danny opened the door and found Vlad behind his desk, working on some papers and being busy as always. He looked up, probably expecting a servant with tea or the old butler, Lecter, but found a very unsure Danny instead.

A closed expression took over his normal arrogant one and the man leaned back in the chair with an unreadable expression.

“Daniel, I had a feeling you would come.”

“Look,” Danny said before he lost his courage – _and even though this goes against everything I stand for…_ “I have come to make amends, sir. I have behaved improperly, I have insulted you and brought your name and honor in wain. What I said yesterday was cruel, untrue, and disrespectful. I have wronged you and for that I apologize. Please forgive me. I’m just a foolish boy.”

Danny wished he could use his powers and just phase down the earth to rot, but in a way, he felt a sudden lightness by uttering those words. Guess he had meant it after all.

Danny expected Vlad to humiliate him or point out just how childish Danny had acted and begin to lecture him, but instead Vlad just smiled and stood to meet him behind the desk.

“A boy who has just lost his mother, yes,” Vlad replied and placed a reassuring hand on Danny’s shoulder.

Danny felt like something wasn’t right. Something didn’t… _bode_.

“I was in no right to speak as I did,” Danny added to ensure that Vlad understood he was actually sorry and wouldn’t turn his weird understanding around, “I am truly sorry.”

Vlad just continued to smile like some compassionate parent.

“Oh, what is wrongdoings if not a sport of a broken heart and water under the bridge between two gentlemen, hmmm?” he asked and left Danny in the field of utter confusion.

Vlad wasn’t going to skin him alive and make a new carpet of him? What the bloody hell was going on!?

Vlad hid a chuckle by the sight of the boy’s utter disbelieve and led him to the door with his hand continually on his shoulder, “come walk with me Daniel. I like to show you some of the new changes of the castle. I like to show you quit a few things…”

Danny wasn’t sure what to expect and just followed beside the man, a little lost in thought and still believe this to be some sadistic joke that would turn on him eventually, when Vlad decided he was done with the smiling.

“Vlad…are you…feeling alright?”

“Oh, yes, yes, I have never been better,” the man assured and led Danny to the wing of the castle he never had bothered to visit before.

Not that he hadn’t explored the castle, but he just hadn’t felt like going that far as a kid, when he hadn’t been completely in control of his invisibility.

The outside of the old dark castle had always seemed more inviting to him and lured him out to be in the sun or snow when he came here in the holidays.

Danny rose an eyebrow as they passed several corridors and ended up on the second door on the right at the second floor. Danny stared at the door while Vlad opened it with a key. There was something…about that door.

Danny wasn’t sure about what, but he suddenly felt his core pulsing. A strange pull made him place a hand on the wood surface and his core’s pulsating beats doubled. Vlad kept an eye on him without the boy’s notice and smirked.

Daniel felt it to.

“I have wanted to show you my lab for some time now,” Vlad said and pulled Danny back from his trace and opened the door wide.

“Lab?” Danny asked with a frown and peered in beside the man’s frame. As promised, an actual lab awaited behind the door. Danny stepped inside and look around I awe.

Almost all surfaces were made of shining metal, large working tables hosting instruments and tools of all kind. Danny moved slowly from one invention to the next, noticing how all the guns, containers and gadgets held some kind of green or red liquor in them.

He stopped beside a mortar containing half crushed bloodblossoms, looked from the freshly dried flowers beside it to the setup of laboratory glassware, where test tubes stood in rows, filled with the flower extract.

Vlad locked the door behind him and moved to follow the boy’s exploring without a sound.

Danny stopped in front of a large glass container and peered inside. A large green blob threw itself against the glass with bared teeth and red eyes, making Danny yelp and he hurried to back up.

Long tubes and medical lines had been connected to the blob ghost’s morphing form and Danny followed the green IV’s with his eyes to the tank besides the cage, that pumped the green ectoplasm into its interior.

Slowly being filled with green liquor to be made into ammunition for ecto-energy fueled weapons. Danny stopped his retreat as the pull of his core made him turn around and his eyes widened in disbelieve.

A swilling ring of green light towered before him and lured him closer with its power and strange calling. Danny was bathed in the green light and stepped closer to the portal.

Shrill sounds mixed into his reality and flashes of the great green light from his dreams forced their way into his sight. Danny felt his breath become labored and began to hyperventilate.

 _The green light._

_The green sphere._

_The Ghost Zone._

Danny was forced out of his state of shock as strong hands turned him around and Vlad stated down at him with a lidded smirk.

“I-I don’t get it,” Danny stammered, “why do you have all this? It’s like mom’s inventions, but how did you? How could – Why do you have a portal to the Ghost Zone? I don’t understand!”

“Of course not,” Vlad replied and lifted a hand in outrage, “you're, what, _fifteen?_ Too young to vote and join the army? I have been watching over you to catch that ghost-boy who seems to follow you around no matter where you go, believing it might be a curse created by your father’s portal accident. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the ghost-boy was in fact you Daniel, the second ghost hybrid his foolishness created."

“Second?” Danny asked bewildered, trying to understand the situation.

Vlad released him, only to take a step back and made the boy gape in shock. Black rings formed around the man’s midsection and ran across his body, only to reveal a ghost. Danny stared up at the blue skinned halfa.

Black hair spiking into two horns, adorning his head where two blood red eyes without pupils leered down at him. The stranger grabbed Danny before he could backup into the portal and Danny could feel the power and burning heat in that grip.

Danny transformed out of reflex and made the ghost's fanged grin stretch further.

No not ghost – Vlad, Danny reminded himself. This was Vlad Masters. The more he studied the ghost there more resembles with the man he found.

The face was the same, the goatee, the length of the hair, but the white tunic, cape and boots was beyond Danny. His own white school uniform seemed oddly out of place with Vlad’s own medieval like attire.

But that didn’t change the obvious. Vlad was half-ghost. He was a halfa.

Just like Danny.

“I can’t believe it,” was all Danny could utter and Vlad twilled him away from the dip to the Ghost Zone and back to the safety of the midfloor of the lab.

“Start believing, Daniel, it seems to be your thing if the many hours in the chapel is any clue.”

Danny ignored the man’s jab in favor of own rushing line of questions that need some answers, “how long have you hid this from me?”

Vlad scoffed in amusement, creating an eerie sight to behold with the ominous eyes and fangs, “well, before you so elegantly transformed to run from your unreasonable accusations last night, I would have continued to keep this secret of mine in the dark. But now that I know that you, just like I, is a ghost hybrid, I suspect it’s time for us to have a little talk, hmm? Half-ghost to half-ghost?”

Danny didn’t get a chance to replied as Vlad phased through the ceiling of the lab and disappeared out of sight. Danny shot after him, eager to know and followed the pull of the other ghost-signature.

He ended up in the northern parlor where Vlad was waiting for him in one of the couches.

“I’m impressed, but I suppose having been in possession of ghost powers for fifteen years should make you capable of something as simple as flying, invisibility and intangibility, my boy.”

“Oh yeah? And how long have you been in possession of yours?” Danny replied and Vlad grinned as if he was having a field day, which could turn out to be the truth.

“I’m glad you asked, at least twenty years to be exact, Daniel, tell me – can you do this yet?”

Danny turned around in his hovering position in the middle of a parlor as ten Vlads encircled him and the boy drew back in shock, “no I can’t! How do you do it?”

“Years of practice,” the duplicates stated smugly in unison and disappeared at once.

The original Vlad teleported from the couch and Danny searched for him before he hit Vlad’s chest behind him and hurried to turn around.

“I presume you have many questions, hmm?” Vlad smirked and Danny scowled.

“Of course I have! I knew there was another halfa out there, but you? How is this possible!?”

Vlad chuckled and landed back on the carpet, where he transformed back into his human half and gestured for Danny to come down with a beckoning finger.

Danny clenched his teeth, but did as the man wished and landed back on his feet, transformed back to human as well. Might as well humor the man if that meant he got some answers.

They took place on the group of soft couches and Vlad connected his fingertips with a self-absorbed smile.

“Well it’s a long story, but I trust you can handle it, Daniel. You see before you were born, I and your parents worked in the same field. I’m sure your mother must have told you something of her previously profession?”

Danny nodded, “she told me she and my father studied the paranormal and hunted ghosts. But she never mentioned you. You…worked with them?”

“Oh, yes, I was the benefactor and head of engineering in our work. Jack was the inventor and Madeline our leading chemist and physicist,” Vlad told and Danny frowned.

“But why would she…why would she hide this from me? From Jazz?”

Vlad pursed his lips, “Daniel, did your mother ever tell you how Jack died?”

Danny felt the forebode creep up on him, “she said he died in a lab accident. An explosion.”

Vlad scoffed, “well that’s rater simplified, but still the truth I suppose. Yes, he died in an explosion, but not just any explosion, my boy. You see, back in his days of studying the occult, your grandfather; Madeline’s father, had come across the idea of creating a tear in our world and create a doorway into the world of the dead.”

“The Ghost Zone?” Danny asked, feeling a light tingling in his hands and his portal power move just beneath the surface of his palm.

Danny had thrown many a ghost back into the Ghost Zone, but entering the place himself? Danny felt the pull of Vlad’s portal below them and focused back on the man before him.

“The portal downstairs...”

“My second attempt to create what failed fifteen years ago,” Vlad explained, clearly proud of his own achievement, “unfortunate, the first portal we build was to unstable, too big for its own good. We may had been the leading scientist in the field, but we were far from capable of understanding the powers we were toying with so relentlessly. I blame your father for the accident. Madeline was eight months into her pregnancy and shouldn’t have been working in her condition, but your father insisted on working until the portal was ready for the deadline of the test. If we had slowed down and acted less hastily, the accident could have been prevented. But unfortunately, your father had been clumsy enough to switch his soft drink out with the ecto-purifier and turn on the power, before your mother could inform him the calculations was wrong.”

Vlad closed his eyes for a second, as if the memory was painful to him, “the explosion radiated us all. I was closets and was hit full on, causing me body to suffer a severe case of damage and ecto-poisoning. Leaving me in a hospital in New York for seven years, before my ghost half finally became on with my human side.”

Danny swallowed, never been told any of this before. Feeling a sting of betrayal from his mother’s side. Why had she never said something?

“Your father didn’t survive, too far away and not strong enough to contain the radiation. He must have been a living shield for your mother. She survived without further damage, but I suppose her unborn son took the radiation she carried in her. Based on the years we have spent together recently, my guess is that she wasn’t aware of your ghostly side, Daniel. Just like me, you kept it your secret.”

Danny looked away, not going to discuss his reason for secrecy with the man right now. A sudden rush of anger filled him and he clenched his fists.

“But why would she keep this from me? Why would she lie and tell us dad had died in a simple lab accident? Why would she do that?”

“My guess is as good as yours,” Vlad retorted, secretly enjoying the boy’s anger turning in a different direction than his for a change. Better use that to his advance, “but I am to be honest, my boy, I’ll say she was ashamed.”

“Ashamed?” Danny repeated confused, leaving Vlad to elaborate.

The man stood to sit beside the boy on the couch, putting up a sympathetic face.

“Yes, Daniel, ashamed. Maddie and Jack’s work had always been an obsession to them. They neglected many things in favor of their studies and often took drastic measures in hand to get the results they need to continue.

Their family suffered from it and especially young Jasmine was left in her nanny’s caretaking in her first two years of life.”

Danny didn’t know when, but Vlad’s hand had paced itself on his shoulder and drawn him closer to the man.

“After the accident and loss of her work and money to finance its continuity, I suppose your mother realized just how much she had lost and finally understood how much she _could_ have lost. What she had neglected in favor of her obsession. Now that she was alone with your sister and you as a newborn, she must have realized that her loved ones should have been her first priority and ghost hunting the second,” Vlad explained and Danny stared at his shoes.

“So…she was ashamed of her obsession…that we would hate her for almost costing us our lives?” Danny whispered and Vlad nodded slowly.

Danny continued to stare at his polished shoes. A lump forming in his throat.

The anger he felt for his mother deflected and landed on himself. He suddenly understood Jazz’s anger with him. He had neglected her. Just like their mother.

His own obsession with his ghost powers and work with Tucker and Sam had caused him to leave her and mom behind.

His mother might have keep this from him and left him in the dark about his powers origins for years, but she had done so in good faith and only tried to hide the past and her shame from them.

If Danny hadn’t been this dense and just opened his mouth and told her from the start, his mother might had shared her past with him. Explained to him why, just why he had been born a halfa.

Oh, god…he had just stepped into her footsteps, hadn’t he? Turned down the same ally as her and been self-righteous about it, just to make it worse. It had taken an explosion and the loss of her husband for his mother to wake up.

He had been forced to lose her and challenge Vlad to wake up in return.

“What will happen now?” Danny asked, getting a little drowsy under the warmth Vlad’s body radiated and engulfed him in.

He almost hissed by the loss, when Vlad stood to look down on him with expectation.

“Isn’t it obvious, Daniel? You will have to make a decision, hopefully take responsibility and make the right one after this little enlightenment of our shared past,” Vlad replied lightly and locked his hands on his back, “now that you are aware of my powers, I offer you the opportunity to become my apprentice and finally learn how to control your powers.”

Vlad lifted one of his hands and Danny watched as it flared and a flame of roseate burst to life in his palm and crackled alluring.

“I have experience, my child. I could train you, teach you everything I know. Think about the things I could show you, the doors I could open for you. You, Danny Phantom, and I, Vlad Plasmius. Together, we could rule.”

Danny stood and watched as the flame turne to raw strings of electricity and sparked with power.

It was tempting, really. Vlad was clearly more experienced than him, knowing secrets about the existence of a halfa and was willing to teach all this to Danny. He would never have to move in the blind with his powers again or learn thing by accident.

It was an extremely tempting offer. There was just one problem.

He would have to obey Vlad.

“I like the deal, but I’m pretty sure there’s some snake hidden somewhere in the wrapping,” Danny scowled and crossed his arms, not offering his hand to seal the deal.

Vlad sighed and killed the energy in his hand by clenching it effortlessly, “still stalling, are we? Really, I’m a little disappointed in you, Daniel. Of all things, I was sure that you would make the right choice and save yourself all your troubles.”

“Troubles like what?” Danny asked coldly and felt the need to step back and regain his personal space, as Vlad moved in on him.

It was one of the things Danny always had hated about the man.

He always got to close.

“Where to begin, Daniel. Without guidance, you’re just as lost as a toddler at sea. Do you really wish to go back to stumbling through your adolescence, desperately trying to get control of your powers?”

Danny frowned, “no – but that doesn’t mean I want to take your offer either. I know you, Vlad and now that I know ‘Plasmius’ or whatever you call yourself, it’s not hard to guess where you got all your business success from. You stole the money with your powers, didn’t you? Cheated people and used your powers for evil. I’m not like that and I’m not planning to be.”

Plasmius pinched the bridge of his nose with a groan, “if you continued to regard things in such black and white terms, you really are a child, Daniel.”

“What do you mean?” Danny defended, not liking the arrogant tone.

“What I mean, my boy, is your constantly persistence on viewing the world as good or bad. Yes, I used my powers to gain money and power in my youth, I still do from time to time to make my life easier, but can you really tell me you haven’t done something questionable with your powers, my boy? Hmm? Can you really tell me you haven’t used your power in self-interest? Do you see me as an evil man, Daniel?”

Danny bit his cheek. He really couldn’t swear on the bible, no. Using his powers to humiliate Dash, when Danny got tired of all the bulling and visit the girls sleeping dorm when they changed as an invisible spectator, didn’t really make him scot free in this case.

But he had used his powers mostly for good. Used them to defend the village and school from attacking ghost and tried to do the right thing, even though it ended up with him getting a beating.

“Never,” he lied, trying not to let it tell, “and maybe you’re not evil, but you’re not good either, Plasmius. I’ve only used my powers for good, for the benefit of the people around me.”

“And how is that going for you, my boy? Does the service as local hero, unappreciated and unloved really make you fell righteous?” Vlad asked mockingly and pushed a button or two with the adolescent.

Danny glared up at him, “yes.”

Vlad scoffed with a smirk, “be careful, my boy. If you hadn’t been this sloppily with your studies, maybe you would have learned that those who call upon themselves to be the righteous ones, often turned out to be the dictators that left their people to destruction. Only those who accepted their own sins and understand that no one is truly good, can take the dictator’s place as saviors.”

Danny scoffed, not impressed, “yes, they must have forgot to teach us that the day my classroom lost one of the walls and had to be evacuated because of a group of ghosts. Must have been one of the days I saved my classmates – such a shame the education had to suffer.”

Vlad rose an eyebrow, not amused, “you really are stubborn, Daniel.”

“Does it bother you?” Danny challenge.

“Immensely,” Vlad confessed, tilting his head a bit, “it really must be rewarding to be the selfless hero, always taking care of others and never be the one to raise the first fist. Getting nothing in return and continued to be unnoticed by kids deep in their own selfish little worlds.”

“Don’t patronize me,” Danny growled and tried to push Vlad out of his space, “I’m not a child anymore.”

The push didn’t do squat and just resulted in Danny pressing his hand against Vlad’s chest.

Surprisingly firm and toned under the camouflaging tunic. When no answer was served right away, Danny felt some incoming discomfort creep up on him, wondering if it was time to remove his hand or not.<7p>

“No, you’re not,” Vlad finally retorted, looking down at him pensively. Creeping the boy out.

He removed his hand, feeling like Vlad was observing him in another way than usual and not sure how to feel about it. Whatever thought had made Vlad zoom out for a second, bust just as fast and he refocused on Danny again with his intense red eyes.

“Then what do you choose?” Vlad whispered and made Danny shiver.

The man was to close, to intense and way to… _him._

“I want to take up the offer, but on some conditions,” Danny retorted in a voice he hoped was firm and not at all nervous.

“Do tell,” Vlad smirked and sad down on the couch with crossed legs and put up a business-like expression. Danny guessed it was time to discuss the deal and took the couch opposite of the man. Close, but still far enough to clear his head a little.

Danny cleared his throat, “I want to return to the Academy and finish my studies.”

“Can’t do,” Vlad rejected calmly, “training you will require you to be here where I can reach you and have your complete devotion to my guidance.”

“But I need to see my friends,” Danny added with his temper rising, “I need to be there and help them keep the ghosts from taking over the school. If you haven’t already figured, the Academy’s area is hosting a spontaneous portal to the ghost world and letting ghosts though.”

“I can’t have you returning to the states, my boy. You might not be in danger with your powers at your disposal, but the war has cut of most of the sea traffic and I can’t risk you flying over the sea or travel through portals. What I can offer you is some of my own ghost employees to go there and make the area my territory –”

“ – Your what?” Danny interrupted confused, making the man lean a little forward on his seat.

“My territory. If a ghost claims a territory, no ghost can enter it without fighting him. I have claimed this area as my own along with other placed around the world. As you may have guessed from the calm atmosphere around here, there isn’t many ghost ready to challenge a ghost as powerful as I. With my name as the owner of the Academy’s area, your classmates should be safe and your little friends out of danger.”

Danny hadn’t known about that ghost rule and guessed it would do.

“Furthermore, if it is your little friends who draws you back to the states, I will allow you to spend the summer with them and travel as you used to. But as for your education, you will be lectured by a tutor in this house and study what I find suiting.”

Danny pursed his lips. What Vlad was offering was a pretty good solution. He would get to see Sam and Tucker in the summer and have their safety secured with this territory rule.

The war would have forced him to stay anyway, even if Vlad and he hadn’t come clean with their powers and Danny had the feeling that he would regret it if he didn’t take up Vlad's offer to train him.

And most of all.

Danny had already neglected Jazz once. If he stayed, he could still be there for her.

Avoid making the same mistake as his mother.

“Alright. I'll stay,” Danny said, not obvious to the satisfied grin that crossed Vlad’s face and rose a finger, “ _but_ I’m not going to call you ‘dad’, no matter what my mother made you sign and I won’t take over your corporation. I don’t want to become your successor.”

Surprisingly enough, that didn’t seem to exasperate Vlad and Danny pressed back a little, as Vlad leaned forward with a lidded smile.

“Don’t worry. I’ll leave the ‘father’ title on the paper, my boy. But I must say I’m curious. What _do_ you plan on doing with your life, Daniel?”

Danny frowned. Vlad had asked him the same question the night before and just like then, Danny didn’t have an answer. The truth was…he didn’t know.

He had always been good at singing in the choir and recently he had taken up on playing the piano, but that wasn’t something he planned on doing for the rest of his life.

His powers had always been his head priority, but being a hero was payless and sadly enough without reward as well. Danny debated on stating his love for the stars for a second, but thought better of it.

Vlad would only make fun of him for taken an interest in something as loosely as the sky. Becoming a scientist wasn’t really him either, even though he found the theories of space and fantasy books about going to the moon fascinating.

“I don’t know,” Danny replied and stood to offer Vlad his hand, “but it’s for me to find out.”

Vlad sighed, but shook his hand nevertheless.

They’ll see about that.


	10. Danny should be careful what he wishes for and what he does while drunk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> previously in the fic 
> 
> Danny and Vlad makes a truce and Vlad gives him a offer...  
>  _With my name as the owner of the Academy’s area, your classmates should be safe and your little friends out of danger._  
>  _Furthermore, if it is your little friends who draws you back to the states, I will allow you to spend the summer with them and travel as you used to. But as for your education, you will be lectured by a tutor in this house and study what I find suiting.”_  
>  _“Alright. I stay,” Danny said, not obvious to the satisfied grin that crossed Vlad’s face and rose a finger, “but I’m not going to call you ‘dad’, no matter what my mother made you sign and I won’t take over your corporation. I don’t want to become your successor.”_  
>  _Surprisingly enough, that didn’t seem to exasperate Vlad and Danny pressed back a little, as Vlad leaned forward with a lidded smile._  
>  “Don’t worry. I’ll leave the ‘father’ title on the paper, my boy..."
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people  
> there's more than one song in this chapter - at first danny sings The Holy And The Ivy in the church  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmXf4chXbV0  
> and later during a story danny sing The Juniper Song (couldn't find a male singer of this version, but its the only recording of this particular version of the song anyway -if you haven't seen The Moth Diaries, do it)  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m78-A4m-Dic
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

“And you decided to stay?”

Danny emptied his cup and with that, the last of the coffee pot. He sent the old cop a challenging look over the rim, “wouldn’t you?”

Nichols huffed his cigarette and exhaled in thought, “guess I would. Seems like pretty a good bargain to me, If I was in your shoes. But I’m not sure if I like this Vlad person.”

“Makes two of us,” Danny sighed and put his cup aside, “but yeah, I decided to stay and make the most of it. The war kept me from hearing from Tucker or Sam, meaning I just had to trust that Vlad really had taken the school as his territory. But then Sam called me over a long-distance line and kept his word. I saw them against that summer and the summer after. Vlad kept all his promises. I came to trust him a lot actually. Now that we had something real in comment and I got to know him better, he actually started to show me a better side of himself. I uhm…started to like him. A lot. Training was pretty great.”

Danny scratched his neck with downcast eyes and Nichols stubbed the last of his cigarette with some concern. They were still in the early years of Danny’s tale and he sensed more trouble was at stake.

“Listen, kid, there’s something you need to clarify. I’m not sure I understand this whole difference between the ‘Ghost Zone’ and the place you make ghost cross over to. Is it the same place?”

Danny pursed his lips in thought, “well, the Ghost Zone is like, the place where ghost spawn after they die. Why only some people becomes a ghost, I honestly don’t know. Maybe it had something to do with their obsession and unfinished business on earth – I’ve no clue, dude. But it’s like the realm that exist next to ours. A parallel dimension if you want. I leaned early to make portal to the place and threw ghost back into it when I defeated them.”

Nichols watched a bit eerie as the kid formed a green disk on the wall. A green swilling light filled the portal and the cop thought he heard voices behind it. Danny caught the sight of his discomfort and snuffed out the portal again.

“I like to send them back there when they turn out to be troublesome and won’t behave, but…where they go when you kill them…I don’t know. I like to think they end up the same place as those I help cross over, but again…nobody knows.”

“Have you ever killed someone?” Nichols asked slowly and Danny felt the phantom touch of Spectra’s nails down his spine. The whisper of her sweet nothings in his ear. He pushed her away, she hadn’t been the only one. There had been others. So many others…

“Yes.”

Danny’s body seemed to close in on himself and his face became that of a broken man. Nichols rubbed his face and tried to come up with something that would kill this dreadful atmosphere.

“Do you have a power to make ghosts cross over to? Another portal thingy?”

Turning in on the kid’s more helpful powers seemed to be the trick and Danny returned to the present. He shook his head, “it’s not like that. When you help a ghost cross over, you simply help them finish whatever made them cling to life in the first place and then you simply let them go.”

“Let them go?”

“Let them go.”

Nichols wasn’t sure he understood a rat’s ass of any of that, but decided he wanted the rest of the story now. He lit another cigarette and sniffed with a grunt.

“Alright, you two got along as little happy halfa palls and made some kinda bond, then what?”

“Then,” Danny began slowly, “I spent the time shifting between ghost training, homeschooling and hanging out with Vlad. Jazz was pretty glad we had worked something out, although I never told her exactly how. Her fiancé started to visit after the mourning timespan had ended and whaddaya know? He was actually a pretty decent guy. No worries there.”

Nichols suddenly saw the image of this sarcastic little Danny in front of him and how overly protective he must had acted towards his sister’s boyfriend. He snorted by that imaginary scene.

“Can I be honest with you, Danny? You sounded like a pretty annoying twerp.”

Danny broke into laughing and dragged the cop down with him.

“I know, I know,” Danny grinned, “I was such a self-righteous little brat back then. Thought I was the hero in some story of black and white realities. I think my biggest problem actually was the way I saw the world. In black and white…made me fail to realize that just because you start seeing someone white instead of black, doesn’t make them completely trustworthy. I failed to understand the grey tones. As many as the stars. I was so stupid back then.”

Nichols sighed, “what happened?”

“I lured myself into a false sense of security I guess. I failed to notice that, just like my view on Vlad had change after I learned of his ghost halfa, Vlad had change in the way he had reagreed me as well. I started to feel a difference, sense that something had changed in him, something about the way he treated me. Watched me. Followed my every move. I was too deep into my own little world of wrong and right and what was possible and what wasn’t, that I choose not to acknowledge them. Told myself I was making it up if I even noticed anything. Made myself doubt what was happening around me and made up excuses and suitable explanations. Told myself to stop imagine things that wasn’t there.”

Danny’s brows scrunched tightly together and his face turned to that of regret and old ache. Nichols worries suddenly skyrocket. He had seen that expression many times before as a cop throughout the years.

Back in the days it had mostly been girls sitting at the other side of his desk, crying, and crushed as they had to retell what had surpassed them. Now days, he had come to see a young boy or two come to tell him their painful moments as well.

The worst had been the cases with small children.

He said nothing as he stared into those blue eyes and they looked back at him with the dull sense of hurt that only years of abuse and mental torture could contain. Old wounds in the face of a young man. Danny blinked and seemed to understand that Nichols knew.

“I like to think that the old Danny still lives inside me. That I’m still the same after all these years. But a lot of things changed. I changed,” Danny said and seemed to lose himself to memory lane again as he looked past Nichols. Far past him, the interrogation room and the border of time.

“It happened two years after I decided to stay. The end of World War 1 was a single year away, even though we didn’t know at that time. Jazz had married the man of her dreams and moved to her new estate and perfect home. I was happy for her, even though I didn’t get to see that often as before. She and her husband visited Christmas eve and I was still at peace with Vlad. Didn’t see the cracks.”

Danny exhaled shakenly.

“Today I know It wasn’t my fault, but…I was the one to make the first move. And he took the last step in return.”

 

_Year 1917, St. Paul’s church, Yorkshire, England_

_**“I was the one to make the first move. And he took the last step in return.”**_    

   
 

_“The holly and the ivy,_  
_When they are both full grown_  
_Of all the trees that are in the wood_  
_The holly bears the crown_  
_O the rising of the sun_  
_And the running of the deer_  
_The playing of the merry organ_  
_Sweet singing of the choir!”_

   


Danny glanced past his fellow choir singer and found Vlad and Jazz down the church’s left wing.

As the wealthiest and most powerful man in the parish, Vlad was seated in the front row and was clearly visible along with Jazz and her husband. Danny inhaled as the song moved on.

He was one of the oldest boys in the choir and therefor given a sole piece, since he was the most experience as well.

After he had taken up Vlad’s offer two years ago and stayed in Yorkshire, Jazz had encouraged him to take up singing again and he had gone to the local church with his request.

The priest had been more than happy to welcome an old member to his choir again and off course, the fact that he had trained Danny as a child and knew of his talent made it not that hard for the old man to decide.

The little detail that Danny now lived by the name ‘Masters’ pretty much opened a lot of doors for him as well. Danny stopped question it with time and just accept the fact that Vlad was a known and powerful man.

Now that he and Danny had become closer, Danny had started to see more sides of him and taken a likening to the loner. Even come to like his studies at the castle. Danny’s new tutor had turned out to be a middle-aged man from Harvard.

The studies were a bit dry, but the man put a lot of effort into explaining things in a way Danny could understand and Danny had to admit having a personal teacher who only focused on you and your needs, was an improvement from the boarding school’s method of leaving students to work themselves.

As Danny’s studies began to pay off, Vlad had taken up an interest in discussing his subject with him and help him widening his horizon.

They had begun to spend the evenings after training by talking in the study of the many facets of the world and even play the piano and violin together. Danny soon learned that Vlad had traveled a lot and seen countless places in his youth, leaving the boy pretty impressed.

He had started to receive sporadic letters from Tucker and Sam again, which both made him happy, but also a bit bummed out. They had traveled again that summer and visit the Mediterranean Sea again.

Tucker and Sam had been a little cautious about his relationship with the other halfa, since Danny had always told them just how much he had loathed the man, but they trusted his intuition and focused on traveling with him instead.

The fact that Vlad had indeed kept his promise and made a ghost named “Skulker” patrol the Academy’s area in his place, had added to the trust of the man.

Vlad himself had been nothing but a gentleman to his friends and continually paid the summer trip, but Danny couldn’t help but notice he’s strange resentment towards Sam. It was hidden well, but it was the little things he did.

Calling her “Samantha”, comment on her lacking lady manners, sending Danny those strange glances when he sat next to her. Kind of like he did now. Danny continued to sing, but felt those burning eyes on him.

Wandering and leaving him with a chill he couldn’t really place. Couldn’t really understand the meaning of. Or why Vlad’s eyes made him want to hide and run towards him at the same time. Just something that would finally break this tension.

Danny sighed in relief as the final verse ringed out and the Christmas churchgoers started applause. Danny and the rest of the choir bowed and smiled to their family and friends. Danny left the stage by the altar and move down to his family with a big grin.

“Danny, that was wonderful, I can’t believe you were able to reach such high tones!” Jazz congratulated him exited and her fiancé; Dean tousled his hair goodhearted.

“Happy Christmas, Danny, thought we wouldn’t make it, didn’t you?”

Danny pushed the blond man’s hand away with an even wider grin, “hey, it’s not like me and Vlad can’t celebrate Christmas without you two.”

“I’m sure we could, badger, but then I would be forced to watch you eat an entire goose by yourself and that is a sight I’ll rather be spared,” Vlad implored and ignored Danny’s joking protests as he helped him out of the choir cape, “now come along, the cars are running outside and ready to bring us safely back to the castle. If the paper’s forecast is right, we might have a snowstorm coming in a few hours.”

“Wait, I need to wish the others merry Christmas before we leave,” Danny interjected with his hands on Vlad’s arm and ran off with his cape to met the other boys at the altar.

Vlad followed him with his eyes and felt the old hunger move again. The touch of those hands on his arm lingered. He had tried his best to keep it down, but Danny had started becoming more…near going these past months.

Started to copy Vlad’s ways of intruding other’s personal space when he wanted to intimidate them. Danny on the other side, did it to joke with him.

See how far he could get, before Vlad either moved away from the young man or came up with a reason to excuse himself and leave the room. It had become harder and harder with time.

Vlad had to fight the urge to just close the distance between them in those moments and seal Danny’s mouth with his lips.

Vlad Masters couldn’t tell the exact moment when men came to share an equal attraction with their female counterpart in the eyes of his. A grand suspension had led him to believe it might had started in his early bachelor years, even before his affair with that university professor.

Times where the majority of his time was spent in the company of other gentlemen and planted him in quaint situations, where new insights on his sex had come to unfold in new unknown ways.

The gentlemen clubs.

The bachelor parties.

The late-night dinner parties accompanied by great amounts of whiskey.

The boarding school.

The circumstances of the time of his growing attraction to the male population was not a concern of Vlad’s anymore. The man and half-ghost had no moral when it came to the simple laws of society, so why bother speculating in the rights and profanity of his sexual life?

But it was his sexual life that was weighting him down now, as to speak. No guilt or second thoughts was to blame for the extra weight on his shoulder, but pure desire.

The young man he had taken under his guidance, had come to be the goal of this emotionally complication and brought the man out of his normal sense of control.

He wanted the boy and that was a heavy weight to bear.

He was pulled from his rather scandalous train of thoughts, when Jasmine started leading him to the entrance to the church, where people was whishing the old pastor goodnight with handshakes.

“I must say a merry Danny at Christmas eve is a sight I can’t get enough off; do you remember how he used to sulk as a child by this time of year and leave during the season?”

Vlad had to admit he never had been much for Christmas either. Having spent it alone for years before the Fentons returned to his life, but celebrating it with the siblings was rather nice.

He nodded as they placed themselves in line, “yes, a happy Daniel is always preferable, my dear. I look forward to see his surprise when I hand him his gift tomorrow morning.”

“Really? What is it? Wait…is it an automobile?” she asked with interest and Vlad chuckled.

“Not quite. I like to leave it as a surprise for now.”

Danny returned as they reached the two cars and the Thornwood’s and Masters’ drove with each car back to the Masters castle. Danny looked forward to the dinner and thought of the present he was going to hand Vlad.

Danny wasn’t even sure if the man would like it, but trusted his instincts on this one. Even if Vlad didn’t like the gift, Danny would probably keep it himself. He stole a glance up at the man and smiled secretive.

The man had always replied with an indigitated scoff when Danny implied he might want a thing like this, but Danny was more than assured that Vlad was secretly into this gift.

He just had to overcome his pride.

Vlad felt Daniel’s eyes on him and leaned back in the seat, “what are you plotting, Daniel? I know that look, I hope it isn’t something unpleasant for your own sake.”

The adolescent just smirked, “that depends…”

Vlad rose an eyebrow, “on what, little badger?”

“How much do you like your furniture?”

“Daniel,” he warned, but the boy kept up that smug look for the rest of the ride. Vlad reminded himself to keep an extra eye on the young man as they returned to the castle and walked in with Jasmine and Dean.

Vlad decided to place his worries in the background for now and welcomed Mr. Thornwood’s topic on their new shared shipping service to china, as they seated. The evening was spent with talk by the table and celebrating the holyday as it was custom.

Danny showed Jazz the photographs Tucker had send of him and Sam along with their gifts and they admired the quality of the colors and funny motives of the states.

When the evening’s final tradition of ghost story telling finally settled, Dean was the first to take the role as the storyteller.

Vlad watch from his armchair with mild amusement, while Jazz shrieked and laughed as the story unfolded. Danny couldn’t keep out the laughter, Dean clearly had never meet a real ghost before or been in any real life-threatening situations in his life.

“And there she was. The woman that had followed him from the cemetery. He moved to address her, ask her of her intentions and why she had followed him. As an act of anger, he grabbed her veil to see her face and was horrified – she had no face!”

Jazz screamed and Danny groaned, “what? That’s not scary!”

“Really, Danny?” Dean asked with a chuckle, “if you meet a woman without a face wouldn’t you be just a bit startled?”

“Hey, if she has no face, she can’t bite your head off,” Danny noted and made Dean make a grimace, “just saying, Dean.”

“Agh, Danny, that’s disgusting,” Jazz added and moved to let her husband take the seat on the couch beside her.

Dean made a gesture for the open space in front the blazing fireplace, “there you go, show us how you think a real ghost story should go.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Danny replied smugly and stood.

He cleared this throat, wondered whenever to tell them one of his own adventures, but he wasn’t exactly sure if they had been scary or proved to be worthy ghost story material. Instead he ended up telling an old story Sam once had told him.

“It’s the story about the Juniper tree,” Danny began slowly, “there once lived a rich man who had been left with a son after the death of his wife. In his loneliness and need for a mother of his child, he remarried a woman with a daughter a little older than the boy. The new siblings soon became close, but the woman wasn’t satisfied with the knowledge that the boy would one day inherited all the wealth at the expense of her daughter.

So one day when her husband had left the house, she lost her patience when the boy asked for one of her apples. She led him to her chamber and opened a heavy chest filled with red apples. She lured him to take one and as he reached over the edge, she slammed down the lid of the chest and chopped his little head clean of. To hide her crime, she placed the corpse in a chair and wrapped a scarf around the loose head and neck.

When her daughter returned, and found her brother on the chair, she asked if he would share the apple, but when he didn’t answer she thought he was teasing her and hit his little head. The head fell of and the mother rusher to the room, alarmed by the screams and told her daughter they had to expose of the body or her father would kill her.

When the lord of the house returned, he was brokenhearted to be told that his son had left to live with relatives, but he was soon lifted as his wife served him a pound of cooked meat. It was the sweetest and most delicious meal he had ever been served, but the more he ate, the more the little girl Ann-Marie cried. She gathered all her brother’s bones in a scarf without her father’s notice and buried the remains under the garden’s juniper three.”

Dean smiled, while Jazz leaned forward to hear more. Danny caught Vlad staring at him with a strange sense of devotion. Danny ignored it and continued.

“As she did, a little bird suddenly appeared on one of the branches and its song made her forget all her sorrows and so she returned to the house. The bird then left the branch and flew to the village nearby, singing the song over and over:

 

_“My mother, she butchered me_  
_My father, he ate me_  
_My sister little Ann-Marie,_  
_She gathered up the bones of me_  
_And tied them in a silken cloth_  
_To lay under the juniper_  
_Tweet, tweet… what a pretty bird am I.”_

   


The goldsmith heard its song and went outside to find the bird. He asked it to sing its lovely song again, but the bird would only sing again in exchange for the gold chain the man had been working on. The goldsmith gave the bird his work and the bird sang again. Then it left and landed outside the shoemaker’s shop. Just like the goldsmith, he went out to find the source of this lovely song and asked the bird to sing again for him.

But the bird would only sing in exchange for the pair of red silk slippers he had been working on and the shoemaker handed the bird the slippers and it sang to him. Then it went to the village’s mill and the millers went out to see the bird. They asked it to sing again, but the bird would only sing in exchange for the new millstone they had brought to the mill. They gave the bird the millstone to carry around its neck and it sang for them.

Then it left with the millstone, slippers and gold chain, and returned to the house of the juniper tree. When the family inside heard its song, they became very happy, all except from the woman, who only felt dead. Little Ann-Marie went out to see the bird and listened to its song with glee. Then the bird let the slippers fall into her hands and she ran back in to tell her parents about the bird.

The woman was afraid to go out, but the husband went outside and just like his daughter, he listened to the bird’s song and was rewarded with the gold chain. He returned to the house, told what had happened and the woman went out. Expecting to receive a present as well, but after she had listened to the song, the millstone fell down on her and crushed her body. The husband and daughter rushed out, horrified.

But then the bird landed before them and turned into the boy. He and Ann-Marie told their father what had happened and he took them by the hand and led them back to the house to celebrate his son’s return.”

Dean lifted a hand to stop him, “I liked it, but it has a happy ending, Danny. Ghost stories doesn’t end with a happy ever after.”

“Says who!” Danny asked wit crossed arms, “ghosts can live happy ever after.”

“You sure about that?” Dean teased with a knowing smile, “evil might win in a ghost story, but ghosts aren’t meant to stop being evil or get a good ending like that.”

Danny scoffed and turned to Vlad for assistance on the matter, “please tell me you’re taking my side on this?”

“I agree,” Vlad replied and send Dean a smug look, “just like anyone else, a ghost should be permitted to have his happy ever after. Evil or not, Mr. Thornwood.”

“See? Ghost can live happy ever after – even if they have an evil backstory,” Danny added and Vlad wasn’t late to catch Danny teasing side-glance in his direction.

“Or act as little brats,” Vlad added with a smirk and Danny send him a glare.

Jazz snug up to her husband with a tired smile, “alright, who’s the next to tell a story? How about you, Vlad?”

“No, I think Daniel win this prize as this Christmas’s best story teller. Telling a story myself wouldn’t be fair now that he had put so much effort into his performance,” Vlad retorted and received a scowl from Danny and patted his shoulder in mild sympathy, “don’t look so glum, my boy, you know I’m right.”

“Whatever you choose to believe,” Danny replied sarcastic and went to the tree to fetch two gifts, “these are from me and Vlad.”

Jazz and Dean thank them and handed both Danny and Vlad their gifts and return. As the night came to an end, the paper’s forecast turned out to be a falls alarm and the Thornwoods could safely return to their own estate.

Danny waved from the door next to Vlad and watched as the car took off into the night. He looked up in surprise when Vlad started to open the wrapping of his present.

“I think the age is playing tricks with you, Vlad. Don’t you remember that your supposed to open your gift Christmas _morning_?”

Vlad just smirked in return and examined the new gold cuffs he had received, “I think you forget that rules are set by rulers and since I’m the lord of this castle, I’ll say my rules are law.”

Danny decided the man had a point and just shrugged, “alright.”

Danny ripped open his own gift and found a new book about star observation. He followed Vlad back inside and picked up his gifts from Sam and Tucker. When he started to search for the last package under the tree he didn’t find it and turned to Vlad.

“Don’t tell me you forgot to buy me a present, that would be pretty awkward for you when I hand you mine.”

Vlad chuckled, “as flattered as I am to receive a present from you this year, I’m afraid your gift isn’t exactly corporal and wouldn’t fit under the poor tree. You will have to wait until tomorrow morning to get it, like any other good English child.”

“What? That’s no fair!” Danny protested and Vlad just grinned in return and went for the grand staircase.

Danny scowled, “fine! Then you have to wait for your present too, you old geezer!”

He waited until Vlad had phased into the ceiling, before Danny phased down to the kitchen himself and secured that his present was still where he’d left it. He brought it up to his room to make sure it stayed put and went to bed.

 

Danny watched as the sun rose in west and transformed to phase through the walls.

He found Vlad’s bedroom and looked around for a second. As the master bedroom, it was a lot bigger than Danny’s, but Danny liked his room and wasn’t exactly envious. It was Vlad’s home after all, if he need a huge room to sleep in, then Danny wasn’t going to stop him.

Maybe just tease him about it. Alone that fact that a Mr. Masters slept in a master bedroom was hilarious in his opinion. He floated to the huge four poster bed and moved past one of the posts securing the bordeaux canopy.

Vlad was fast asleep, his silver white hair sprawled around his head. Danny had never seen it out of the signature ponytail and felt a strange urge to touch the tresses, but stopped himself. That would be unseemly.

Instead he took a quick peek at Vlad’s privacy and looked into his drawers and wardrobe. He didn’t find anything out of the ordinary or any good blackmail material, but he did find a loaded ecto-gun to his slight surprise.

Danny decided not to think too much about it and closed the two doors to the wardrobe again. He hovered over to watch Vlad again. The man had turned a bit, the loose hair spilling over the pillow like a silver waterfall and his features that of relaxed sleep.

His chest rising and falling in slow breathing. Danny swallowed from a feeling he didn’t quite recognize and caught himself wanting to lay down beside him.

He shook his head, what was he thinking?

When Vlad just continued to sleep despite Danny’s presence, he decided to just wake the man up himself.

_“Vlad.”_

The man’s serene expression frowned and he shifted to lay on his back, still fast asleep. He mumbled something that sounded a lot like Danny’s name and Danny took that as an encouragement that the man had heard him in some sense or another.

“Vlad.”

The man just mumbled his name in return and Danny shivered by his husky tone and decided to shake his shoulder. He had barely placed his hand on Vlad’s shoulder, before a hand shot up and grabbed his collar. Almost dragging him down into the bed.

Solid red eyes stared into his delated green and Danny forgot how to breath. His young heart and core beating in a mix of fear and…something else…

Vlad suddenly blinked in confusion, “Daniel...what are you doing in my bedchamber in the middle of the night?”

Danny let go of his withheld breath as Vlad released him and tried getting control of his pulsing core.

He put up his normal grin, tried to smooth the situation as he hovered in the air, “well, obviously, someone told me last night that I wouldn’t get to receive my present before daylight and since I’ve already ransacked this entire castle – _that includes your underwear drawer_ – I have come to you to get my Christmas gift. Don’t tell me you’ve actually forgotten to buy me something? Old age is not an excuse, Vlad.”

Vlad clearly wasn’t joining in on or appreciating the joke and sent his drawer a side-glance, before turning to the window with a scowl.

“Daniel, it’s in the middle of the night.”

“No – the sun is rising from my window and as a _child_ , I’m in my good right to say when it’s Christmas morning or not. Get up, you lazy son of gun.”

“I’ve said it many times, Daniel, I will not hear you swear,” Vlad warned severely and Danny landed to sit on the edge of the bed with a pout.

Vlad ran a tired hand down his face and moved to pull the string connected to the bell in the servant’s wing.

Danny scowled, “do you really need Lecter to help you dress? Cut the man some slack, Vlad, it’s Christmas morning, for God’s sake.”

“With the Christmas paycheck he received last night, I don’t think he will share your opinion,” Vlad drawled and stood up.

Danny transformed to his human form, fully dressed and ready to go, while Vlad was in his pajamas and stretched with a groan. Danny caught a sight of his bare hip and looked away with a blush.

Vlad noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye and a little scheme formed in his head. If the boy insisted on infiltrating his privacy, he might as well get a show. Vlad smirked as he turned his back to Danny and started unbuttoning his nightshirt.

Danny rose his eyebrows by the action and widened his eyes as the shirt fell from Vlad’s back. Danny had trained with the man and knew he was toned in his ghost form, but he hadn’t expected him to be this fit in his human form as well.

Danny bite his lip and turned invisible to hide his blushing face. He knew he shouldn’t be ashamed to watch the nudity of another man, but there was something deeply forbidden about watching Vlad’s lithe, but strong body strip down like this.

Danny felt his mouth dry out from the sight of those long silvery locks framing his strong jaw and muscles move in the morning light.

He stayed in this position as the butler knocked on the door and Vlad called him in. Danny was forced to watch as the butler took Vlad’s nightwear and left the man in his underwear.

Vlad acted as if he wasn’t aware of his flustered audience and small talked with his servant as they discussed what he would wear this morning. Danny didn’t know why, but watching the movements of Vlad’s strong body captivated him and made him feel shameful.

It was like that time he and Tucker had visited Greece and watched those olive-skinned workers by the road. Their muscular torsos had been glistened with sweat and one of them had found Danny staring and blew him a kiss.

The young adult forced himself to keep quiet and cool down, as Vlad finished dressing and pulled his hair into a low ponytail with a black ribbon. Lecter straighten the red tie and brushed the man’s shoulder and back to make it complete.

“Excellent, you can leave me for now, Lecter,” Vlad informed checking his reflection in the mirror and the old man left the bedroom. Vlad turned to the bed with an unaffected smirk, “now, Daniel, let’s get your present.”

Danny reappeared, still with red cheeks, “okay.”

Vlad’s smirk widened by the obedient tone. He had been in the middle of a rater graphic dream about Daniel beneath him, when the adolescent himself had decided to wake him up.

Daniel’s frightened expression had only fueled his predatory instincts and it had taken Vlad a second to realize the setting. If he hadn’t been in such control of himself, he would have just pulled the young man down and taken him there on the bed.

Vlad shook his head, but couldn’t stop the amusement.

Daniel had been flustered to see him undress.

Interesting.

Daniel continued to stay silent and lost in thought as they went down to breakfast and Vlad decided the boy had suffered enough and led him to the lab after a quick meal.

“You made me an invention?” Danny asked, trying to put the morning’s shenanigans behind him and focus on his goal. His present.

Vlad turned ghost and gestured for him to do the same, “not exactly, I remember you told me that you had sent ghost to the Ghost Zone after your battles.”

“So?” Danny asked, more confused than ever and followed him through the lab. Vlad opened the lock to his portal, the green light illuminating his form and he extended a hand to Danny.

“Well, I like to take you on a tour.”

 

Danny had seen a lot of glimpses of the Ghost Zone, head things about the place and wondered about what it would be like to visit it one day.

But actual go there? Danny had found the place bizarre just to use a word for description. The green light and morphing interior of the place was strange and so unlike the world of the living, filled with floating objects and gateways to another end of the zone.

Vlad had taken his hand to keep him from straying and told Danny about the things their passed. But most of it had gone right through his head without sticking and he had just tried to take as much in as possible by sight.

Clusters of land seemed to make up the borders of the zone. Floating doors and gates drifted like leaves, but contained unseen lairs of all kinds of seizes.

Danny had opened one of the doors behind Vlad’s back and found a strange room inhabited by a little boy sitting with his back to Danny. The ghost had been staring at a box with a moving picture in the middle, a puzzling sight for the young halfa.

Danny had closed the door again and floated back to Vlad, who was still talking about some floating castle in the ever-green non-specified horizon. It would have been an understatement to say Danny wasn’t a bit entranced by the place.

Although it was a creepy, clearly haunted place – it had called to him like some second home and in that massive sphere of ectoplasm, he had never felt more powerful.

Danny was still grinning with excitement as they return through Vlad’s portal and if the clock was believable, they had spent down right five hours in there.

Vlad turned back human and chuckled by the young man’s happy appearance.

“By the looks of it, I’ll say you enjoyed your Christmas present,” he noted smugly and placed the bouquet of deathblossoms on the lab counter beside the bottles and tools from his last flower sap extracting and poured the finished extract from the displayed decanter into two glasses.

He added some normal brandy to it and mixed them experienced with a spoon.

Danny accepted the glass Vlad handed him with a large grin, “are you joking? That was amazing, I knew the Ghost Zone had to be a vast place to contain all those ghost, but I’d never thought it to be like a side world to ours. I can’t believe ghost even want to leave, why would they need our world, when they have their own made just for them?”

Danny took a sip and felt the liquor warm down his throat. Vlad had started serving him his own mix after their deal and led Danny in on his little sweet-smelling liquor secret. Danny had never liked alcohol, because of obvious reasons.

It tasted bad, it smelled bad and people around him always acted stupid after a few cups. Everyone except Danny always had fun drinking and born as a halfa, Danny had never experienced what it meant to be drunk or at least tipsy for that matter.

Drinking deathblossoms had been a bit of an experience and Vlad had laughed at his expense, as Danny in an age of fifteen had turned out to be the lightest drinker he had ever meet.

Danny believed himself to have buildup some resistance after two years and had made it a small victory not to go under after a single glass. Vlad poured him his third glass, when Danny suddenly remember the gift and asked Vlad to stay where he was.

Danny flew to his room and returned with the box carefully.

Vlad sent it a frown when the box moved and Danny snickered, “come on, Vlad. We have just traveled through a world filled with dead people and now you tell me you’re afraid of a box?”

“What have you caught in it?” Vlad asked and took the box with some caution. Examined it with distrust.

“Well, there’s only way to find out, isn’t there?”

Vlad grunted and lifted the lid a bit. He blinked surprised when he found two yellow eyes staring up at him and lifted the lid completely. The white Persian meowled in glee and tried to reach him with its little paws.

Danny lifted the kitten out of the box and held it up in front of Vlad’s blank expression.

“Isn’t she just the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen?”

Vlad frowned a bit, but took the kitten nevertheless. It began to purr and claw at his black sleeve, clearly liking its new owner. Danny bit his lip by the sight. Vlad looked like he had never seen a kitten before.

What an idiot.

“It's…a very sweet gift, Daniel, but I’m afraid –”

Danny hurried to place a finger over his lips, shutting the man up instantly. Danny grinned a little tipsy on top of the deathblossoms and ecstasy from the trip.

“Shhh, I know it’s probably beneath your pride or something, but I just saw this little thing and thought of you on the spot. I brought her from old Folger’s farm and thought she could live here,” Danny babbled and scratched his neck a little embarrassed suddenly, “they already named the kittens and it’s a little odd, but her name is Maddie.”

Vlad hummed and Danny moved closer to scratch the kitten behind the ear. Vlad still looked a little doubtful about the ownership, but Danny was pretty sure he could talk the man into it.

“Well? Do you like your gift?” he asked, hoped for a positive answer.

Vlad looked from the purring kitten’s yellow eyes to the blue puppy eyes of Danny and felt the dejection die on his tongue. Vlad wasn’t in a need of a pet and especially not a cat of all things…but she had been a gift from Daniel.

The feeling of Daniel’s finger still lingering on his lip.

Hmm…why not?

He sent the tipsy adolescent a wry smile and set the box aside, “I guess I can allow her to stay.”

Danny sighed in relief and continued to pet the little white ball of lush hair.

“You're going to adore her. She kissed me when I brought her, like she knew I was going to take her home or something,” Danny grinned and Maddie increased her purring.

“Perhaps it’s custom between cats to greet that way,” Vlad offered and Danny sent him a side glance.

“I thought that was a russian thing?”

“Well, yes, its tradition to greet people with a kiss in Russian to,” Vlad began and made a face when Danny lifted the kitten to his face.

“Alright, kiss her, Mr. Russia. Welcome her to the family!”

“Daniel, no,” Vlad frowned and tried to get the cat out of his face, but Danny was laughing now and decided he wanted the man to kiss the kitten.

“Danny, yes,” he replied grinning and pressed the kitten snout to Vlad’s face. Danny lost it at the sight of the man’s utter umbrage face and the man was ready to punish the adolescent –

But then Danny kissed him to.

“You never welcomed me to the house either,” Danny grinned, not catching the sudden change of the man’s expression.

Danny snickered as he took Vlad’s lack of word as a sign of wounded pride.

“What now?” Danny asked teasingly, “did I hurt your manliness or something? Do you need a beer cap to pick up the shattered pieces?”

Danny’s fun was suddenly turned around, when Vlad seized his chin and pressed his lips down on his. The boy thought for a second Vlad was trying to teach him a lesson, but lost that thought when a warm tongue left a hot brand on his lower lip.

Danny gasped, opened his mouth to ask what was happening and Vlad took advantage of the opening. Deepened the kiss. Danny lost his breath as a hand locked behind his neck and drew him closer.

A pleasurable shiver ran down his spine, as the man’s tongue began to explore and added heat to his body. The feeling of thin, but soft lips sent sparks of something dark and sensual down his body and Vlad’s goatee scratched his jaw pleasantly.

Subconsciously and half drunk, Danny went from being passive to participating, gripped the man’s shirt for support and received a pleased grow in return.

The vibration ran down his body and ignited a fire in his lower stomach and Danny half registered in his haze, that he had been pressed against the wall and held in place by a much bigger and stronger body.

He suddenly felt a pressure on his belly and realized it was Vlad’s erection.

The man wanted him.

_Just what am I going to do with you? What am I going to do…?_

Danny broke the kiss and stared into Vlad’s red eyes in shock. They were both panting from the lack of air and Vlad placed a thumb on his swollen lip, seemed to look into him and further into his soul.

“It-It’s not right,” Danny whispered, only making Vlad narrow his blazing eyes.

_“Hmm, you sure that’s what you want, Danny-boy?” _Spectra’s deceased voices whispered into his ear and mixed with the sight of the red hue in Vlad’s eyes.__

“This is wrong, I can’t…” he repeated and felt the dread take hold of him. Leaving him cold and completely sober.

He pushed Vlad back and hurried to move before he could seize him. Danny brought a shaking hand to his mouth and turn ghost to shot out of the lab as fast as possible. Fled from Vlad and his raging emotions.

Vlad watched Daniel leave and petted the kitten still securely in his hand. The taste of him still lingering on his tongue and filling him with desire.

Vlad was sure now.

The young man and he had by faith been destined to unite since Daniel’s infancy. It was more than clear to him now than ever that he had to have him.

Jack Fenton and Madeline Jackson’s reunion had cost him many a pain in his life, but now they would pay him back what they owned him with a perfect companion in the form of their beautiful son.

A ghost-hybrid as noble as himself, the only soulmate he could ever had wished for and wanted. He might have loved Madeline once, but compared to what he felt for Daniel, it is was nothing but a light fling.

No one else could stand up to him like Daniel, no one could be his equal like this in power and grace, no one else could hope to follow the path of immortality he had ahead of him. Daniel was his to claim.

Vlad knew all this to be true.

Now he just had to convince the truth to the dear Daniel.


	11. Danny loses his faith and Vlad wins an argument

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previouly in the fic:
> 
> Danny has always liked churches.  
>  _To him, God was someone he didn’t really have a close relationship with or taken to heart, but it sounded nice when his mother told him about heaven and when the priest spoke in the church of absolution and love._  
>  _Moreover, Danny liked churches. They had high ceilings, echoed, choirs he could sing in and he liked the fact that there was something serene and peaceful about it. No matter how many times they moved and where they went to, there would always be a church. That was a reassuring thought._
> 
> And after he learns of his own immortality, he has come to trust god as well  
>  _Danny exhaled and forced himself to turn a little humbler in the Lord’s house. Folded his hands and lowered his head._  
>  _"Mom. I know you might be disappointed in me for not getting along with your old friend, but…I’ not sure I ever will. I’m sorry. I know I’m being selfish and it’s selfish to be glad that you’re in a better place than your sickbed. You are in a better place now. I hope you're happy in heaven with dad and the ones we all lose to time._  
>  _I wish I could join you someday… I’m sorry."_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!!!!  
> are you ready for some dark smut and point of no return for Vlad and Danny's relationship!?  
> I can spoil that this fic is going to be an enemies to friends, to one sided lovers, to enemies, to hate sex, to dark lovers, to friends, to consensual lovers, to enemies, to friends and lovers again  
> are you ready!?  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1917, The Masters estate, Yorkshire, England_

The next couple of days had Danny on edge.

He avoided Vlad like the plague and tried to burry himself in his studies, piano lessons and come up with creative excuses for staying away from ghost training with the man. He even left the castle to dine at the local pub just to evade seeing Vlad at the dinner table.

Vlad was clearly not pleased with this sort of behavior, but hadn’t commented on it either and none of them spoke a word about the Christmas morning incident.

Danny detested having to admit to himself that he did this out of fear and told himself over and over again that this wasn’t the act of a coward, but a protest as a righteous Christian man. Vlad had tried to pull Danny into sin and Danny had made distanced like any moral person should.

He wasn’t hiding from Vlad. He was making a statement.

Hopeful Vlad would get the hint and return to the path of God as he should.

But knowing Vlad and his lack of moral, Danny was playing a lost game. Danny soon came to a lack of creative ways to stay away and Vlad more or less dragged him back to the castle and his company.

Danny felt like walking on needles around the man, as Vlad would place his hands a little lower than normal when they trained, moved closer than necessary and lower his eyes to places on Danny’s body that made him want to cover himself with his hands.

This dance of decadence and unspoken words continued for a while without Vlad making a move on him and Danny had started to believe that he had made it all up in his mind.

That he and Vlad had fooled around while influenced by the deathblossoms and Danny had insinuated Vlad's actions falsely. This delusional believe was quickly shattered when Vlad suddenly pressed Danny closer while training and inhaled the scent of his hair.

“I have to go praying!” Danny all but shouted perplexed and phased out of the halfa’s grip and down the floor of the training room.

Vlad sighed in annoyance and stared at the spot Daniel had phased through in fear.

He had been patient with the young man and waited for him to overcome his fears and ridicules religious beliefs of right and wrong, but something could indicate that the little badger was just as stubborn as he was intoxicating.

If Vlad closed his eyes he could still smell Daniel’s sweet scent and feel the black tresses against his eyelashes. A heat grew inside of him and Vlad groaned in anger.

He decided he was done playing nice and wait in the long slow run. He would get what he desired and he would force Daniel see things from his perspective.

With this scheming promise in mind, he turned back human and walked out of the private training room to track down his skittish prey. Vlad had crossed the corridor on the left wing of the castle when he was meet by the wrinkled face of Daniel’s tutor.

Vlad stopped out of social rules of courtesy and sauntered to the man with the face of perfect tranquility. Hiding all the provoked emotions under the still water.

“Mr. Dawns, I didn’t quite see you there, care to join us for dinner later?”

The old man smiled pleased and flipped through the stack of books and papers in his arm, “that is very generous of you, sir Masters, but I’m afraid I need to go to the post office to fetch some new book for the young Danny. He finishes the book before I can get them delivered, it seems.”

The knowledge that Daniel at least obeyed his studies and was doing a great progress, almost made Vlad forgive him for his previous vanishing act.

“I see,” he replied pompous with a pleased smirk, “I’m glad to hear Daniel is developing a likening to the literature I provide him. What is his favorite topic these days?”

The two gentlemen strolled along down the corridor, while the old Harvard teacher flipped through his papers to find the plan of teaching material from last month.

“Well, Daniel is making progress in higher mathematics, even though it took some time to find a suitable teaching method for him to understand comfortably. He doesn’t seem to like poetry, I am afraid, but he has taken a likening to more…occult themed text. I try to get him authors like Alan Edgar Poe and Oscar Wilde – Danny has asked me to find him books like _Sherlock Holmes_ , _Dracula_ , _Journey To The Center Of The Earth_ and _The War Of the Worlds_ , but of course I found it appropriate to ask of your consent first. These are rather orthodox choices of literature, but Danny insists a great deal, sir.”

Vlad hummed.

Daniel had started to walk down the path of evasion of Vlad’s person again, meaning Vlad should take privileges from him as a way of punishment, but since Daniel had taken such a huge likening to expanding his intellect, Vlad decided he could use that to his advantage.

“If Daniel insist on learning, then who would I be to stand in his way?” Vlad chuckled darkly, but all Mr. Dawns registered was a healthy amusement from Vlad’s side.

“I see, sir.”

“Furthermore, Mr. Dawns, I would like you to take up ethics with Daniel. I know he had that topic back at the academy, but from I can understand it was rather volatile. Would it be possible for you to teach the boy of Nietzsche? Oh, and Charles Darwin for his scientific studies alongside with Sigmund Freud. I have found their studies to be very insightful of our current times.”

Mr. Dawns wrote down with rapid letters on a blank piece of paper and nodded at Vlad's wishes.

“That should be possible, sir. I was going down to the post office to receive works of Plato for the studies at hand.”

Vlad frowned.

While Darwin and Nietzsche would teach the boy not to trust religion and hopefully teach him that the wishes of human should come before any higher superstition, Plato believed in a secrets creator in the nature and insisted that a higher deity had to had taken an interest in the creation of the world.

Vlad tried to come up with an argument of why Daniel shouldn’t study the greek philosopher, but then he suddenly remembered something useful about the man from his own years of studies.

Plato had many a time argued for the right of men to enjoy the pleasure of their own sex and encouraged pederasty with convincing views.

Vlad’s smirk grew wider, “that would be excellent and do orientate me of the boy’s progress and the papers he hands you. I expect Daniel to take up Russian now that we are discussing his education. How well is he in French and German, by now?”

“Fairly well, but –”

“Add advanced latin to his studies now you’re at it – Oh, and while you’re visiting the post office, do order a copy of Max Weber’s _‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’_ for me. I’ve hear a great deal about that work and would like to read it for myself.”

Vlad parted with the now busy man at the end of the grand staircase to the hall and watched the teacher disappeared out the door to get to the village.

Vlad exhaled content. Now that he had secured Daniel’s further education and lead in it a more useable direction, he could relax and return to less anger based activities. The sounds of his loafers echoed down the halls as he walked to his lab.

He had a few things he needed to make in order to secure his and Daniel’s future, should the young man prove to stay troublesome.

 

Danny looked up to the altar and felt nothing.

Something he never thought he would experience in all his life. He had talked to his mother and the father he had never known, but none of them had given him an answer or the comfort he used to feel in the chapel.

Not even God.

Danny felt the frustration take hold of him and he banged his fist against the altar.

“Why won’t you give me an answer,” he asked and pressed his hands against the surface of the holy altar, “why won’t you tell me what to do?!”

Danny felt no present of his god and suffered in silence. He bowed his head and tried to get in control. Tried to fell a little more humble and Christian-like, tried to channel his god and get a sign.

Nothing came to him, Danny was lost.

“Why won’t you help me?” he whispered and closed his eyes, frowned and listened, hoped to get through to the higher power.

Vlad had tried to get him into his sinful ways, but Danny had resisted, yet still…God hadn’t giving him a sign of what to do about the man, what to do about his own sinful mind and the ungodly images that had haunted him in his sleep.

Danny lifted his head with a forceful exhale and attempted to get his shit together. Tried to find a resolution to this mess. Acting as if nothing had happened between them clearly hadn’t had the desired effect on the man or made him stop his newfound treatment of Danny.

Danny shivered. Was it really new after all? Danny bite his lip in concern, recalled the many times before the incident. How Vlad would watch him when he thought Danny wasn’t aware or how the man always found an excuse to touch him in some way.

Platonic and completely innocently, of course – but Vlad had been more handsy than most. And then the dressing episode Christmas morning.

_Little badger._

Danny winced and suddenly felt chilled to the bone.

How long had Vlad been having sexual thoughts about him? Danny honestly didn’t want to know and forced it out of his head. It wasn’t important – what was important was to come up with a solution for this problem.

Staying with the man was getting troublesome and unless Vlad saw his errors and change asap, Danny would have to go look for a new home.

He knew Vlad probably wouldn’t let him return to the academy and since he had been absented from the school and its tuition for two years, it would prove difficult to go back anyway.

He could write to Sam or Tucker, but then he would be forced to explain why he was running from the person he had talked so fond of this past year and that was a confrontation Danny would evade at all cost.

Even if he kept this shame to himself, he was more than certain that Sam would dig it out of him with her caring, but annoying ways of persuasion.

He could go to his sister and explain, she would keep it between them and maybe even talk some sense into Vlad, but Danny felt a sudden forebode by that train of thoughts. Vlad would probably be furious with him, but it wasn’t his own person Danny feared for.

It was Jazz.

Danny had never been hit by Vlad, but if their training had taught Danny anything, it was that Vlad was a skilled, but ruthless fighter and didn’t lose a challenge or held back with his powers.

Danny wasn’t sure if he could beat the man, should a confrontation escalate as such, but should it be necessary Danny would have to give it all.

But overall Danny doubted that it would come to an actual fight between them. Vlad had never laid a cruel hand on either him or Jazz in the past and usual sticked to wordplay. Maybe Danny could just speak his case and make the man understand his repulsion?

Maybe…

The adolescent sighed heavily and sent a lost glace to the angel looking down on him from the painting. Danny mirrored its almost melancholic expression and now that he was close he even though he found tears in its eyes.

Danny frowned by that, a detail he had never detected before now. With the knowledge of the tears, the rest of the angel’s features suddenly seemed mournful, even broken. As if this angelic creature held to many sorrow in its heart to be spilled in words.

To pained to shed those tears and let the false smile of serenity finally fall.

Danny felt a lump for in his throat and winced from the sudden urge to run. Leave and flee to a place where no one could reach him.

The urge to be a complete coward made a sting of anger rise in him and his fists clenched tight enough to leave little red marks of his nails in his palms.

Vlad hadn’t offered to train him to help Danny. Help him understand who he was…but it was all a lie. He had just done it to keep him here under his control. To wait for him to become trusting enough for the man to make a move.

Vlad had lied to him.

And Danny had trusted him with all his heart.

The chapel’s bible and candelabra was sent to the floor with a loud crash. Flaring fists sent the altar’s decoration flying and a dent was made in the altar’s surface as Danny slammed his fists down onto it with glowing green eyes.

“Why won’t you help me!?”

The normal serenity and safety he normal felt stepping into the house of God continued to be absent and made Danny feel ridiculous for yelling at an empty building. He bared his teeth in anger.

What am I supposed to do!? Why won’t you tell me what to do!? It’s a sin and still…”

Danny scrunched his eyes tightly in inner pain and exhaled with a whisper, “still you let a part of me want it.”

A sound behind him made Danny twirl around with raised hands ready to blast the intruder. Vlad tilted his head at the sight of Danny’s angry pose and placed his hands in his pockets without a concern.

“My, my, taking your troubles out on your deity, dear Daniel? Perhaps it would be more realistic to take it out on me. I am a real being after all.”

“This isn’t the place to exercise your self-assurances,” Danny replied drily and let his hands fall, “and have some respect. This is a house of God.”

Vlad ignored him and took in the sight of the broken candles and the bible lying with the scattered pages in disorder.

His eyes returned to the upset adolescent and he reached to place a hand against his cheek, “Daniel –”

“Don’t touch me!” Danny sneered and slapped his hand away before it could reach its goal, “don’t do that. I’m not like that – it’s a sin!”

“Why?” Vlad asked scornfully and moved in on the boy, demonstrating his towering height and looked down at Danny with a smirk, “because your god says so? Because some distant divinity and human made idea of what is right and wrong, stipulates it as such? You know that human rules and imaginary creatures never stopped me from reaching my desires, _Daniel._ ”

Danny stepped back to get some space between them, feeling shivers run down his spine from Vlad’s husky tone.

Danny scowled, “I don’t care. My mother wouldn’t have believed in God if there wasn’t a truth to it and neither would I. What you‘re doing is wrong, Vlad. If not disgusting. Don’t drag me into it.”

Vlad’s eyes narrowed and Danny saw a hue of red appear behind his midnight eyes. He yelped as Vlad grabbed him by the vest and pulled him close enough for them to almost be flush against each other.

“Stop it, Vlad!” Danny protested and tried to get out of his hands.

The man barred his fangs and Danny turned his head in alarm and accidently exposed his neck to the man. Teeth nibbled the offered skin and Danny froze, fearing that the fangs would puncture and draw blood.

Vlad grinned vigorously as Danny blushed in shame and the pleasurable chills Vlad forced upon him.

“You may have religious doubt about this, but your body tells a different story, my boy,” he smiled against Danny’s neck and felt the boy’s renewed struggles to escape.

Danny tried going intangible, but Vlad did the same and succeed in keeping him in place.

“I-it’s against God,” Danny stuttered with shallow breath, hoped that the man could be appealed to stop through godliness.

Vlad laughed, “my, aren’t we faithful all of a sudden? Your God didn’t seem to be a concern when you moaned down in the lab.”

Danny’s blush deepened and hated his own helplessness, “we’re going to hell for this!”

Vlad suddenly released him and Danny staggered back to watch the man crackling with laughter, “oh really? Then I guess you believe yourself to reach heaven should you die a virtuous man? If you even can die, I should correct.”

Danny stepped back from the man.

They had never discussed the topic of their immortality before and at some point, Danny had started to believe Ghost Writer might be wrong, as Vlad seemed to have aged since his transformation.

But hearing these words from the only other halfa in the world shattered all hope of mortality.

Vlad’s grin widened by the sight of Danny’s mortified expression, “the only hell or heaven there is to experience for us, is the earth we walk upon, you foolish boy. We will live forever and only you can decided whenever you want this life to be bliss or dreadful. There is no God to decide over you, Daniel, the only deity you and I will ever come across is ourselves. We are the gods of the earth and possess the powers to shape this world as we please.”

Danny moved backwards in pace with the man’s steps and couldn’t tear his eyes from Vlad’s. There was a madness in them, a hunger for power and knowledge of the same.

Vlad chuckled, “and as for your beloved God? Where is he, Daniel? Hmm? Do you really believe God would love atrocities as you and I? That he should allow abomination – the living dead – to walk his earth and exist side by side with his people?”

Danny winced as Vlad grabbed his arm and the man dragged him to the altar, “and since I’m a creature of utter sin, then tell me this, Daniel – why haven’t your God stricken me dead? Burned me for treading the grounds of his holy ground? For _this?_ ”

Danny struggled to get free as Vlad pressed him against the alter and seized his lips. Kissed him forcefully. Danny panicked as Vlad pushed him back and caught him against the altar.

Danny couldn’t get free and his beating hands was forced down as Vlad grabbed them and kept them down with one hand. Danny wanted to yell, but for help or warning, they never found out, as Vlad took the opportunity to deepen the kiss and muffled Danny effectively.

He gasped as Vlad released him and began to leave kisses down Danny’s neck. The little halfa forced enough control into his hand while Vlad was distracted and tried to phase on out of Vlad’s grip.

Vlad hissed from the hit of the ecto-strike against his shoulder and turned Danny around with an animalistic growl.

Danny paled as he was now caught against the altar and Vlad in an even more vulnerable position. Having no problems imagine what would follow and what Vlad could get out of this.

The whispers and hidden talks from his time in boarding school had told Danny all he needed to know, to imagine what Vlad had in store for him.

“Vlad, No! Stop!”

Vlad ignored him and pressed the fighting halfa flush against his chest. Felt how Daniel’s stream of words became more and more frantic as he let his hands wander. The boy’s angry shouts soon became muffled as one of Vlad’s hand covered his mouth and shushed him calmly.

“Don’t deny this, Daniel, I know you want this.”

Daniel shook his head as Vlad pressed his mouth and nose into the black tresses, took in the wonderful scent that kept him up at night and drove him mad.

The man’s other hand started caressing the two fragile hands locked in its hold, as an apology to the bruises that had formed around the writs, that soon would heal and return to their former pale delight.

Something changed in the atmosphere and it took Vlad a second to knowledge the change.

He continued to pet Daniel absently while consider the sudden shift. Daniel was still fighting and struggling to get free, but instead of threatening and yelling at the man in fury, the muffled outburst behind the man had changed in tone and seemed more pleading by now.

Even his struggles had changed from angry to more desperate attempts.

Daniel was scared.

The more subdued, but continues efforts, made Vlad cool down a bit.

Instead of anger he felt the desire return in its place. Daniel’s quivering and intoxicating body against his was the closets Vlad had ever come to a total submission from the boy and there was something utter satisfying about it.

Something absolutely raw.

Vlad grinned and looked down at the adolescent pressed against him, “just look at you, little badger, all flustered and defeated.”

The boy shook his head and tried to look away, but Vlad would have none of that. The hand covering his mouth moved to yanked Daniel’s head back over, forcing him to look up at Vlad’s fanged smile and his shaking back even closer to Vlad’s chest.

“You’re shaking, afraid that I will hurt you, I presume? This isn’t a punishment, Daniel, what are you so afraid of?” he asked and the big blue eyes blinked fearful, making Vlad come to his own conclusions, “perhaps it’s not me you fear, but that you deep down crave for this?”

Vlad let go of the writs and placed the palm against the hectic heart under Daniel’s layer of clothing. Felt how it beat fast and surprisingly cold to the touch. The two free hands grabbed his arm and tried to push them of the side of the altar, but to no use.

The blue eyes shut close and Vlad sighed as he understood Daniel was trying to hide in himself.

The muffled breath hitched as Vlad’s hand began to move from the fluttering heart. The man had often imagined what it would be like to roam his hands down the adolescent like this. Free from restrictions and thoughts of control.

He took in the sounds and expressions of the young man, as his hand explored the body against him. Vlad exhaled heavily, felt every nerve lighting up and made him feel every detail and inch of contact sharpen.

By the sound of Daniel’s breath, he could tell the same was evident with the little ghost-hybrid.

It puzzled him that the boy felt this cold. The smooth skin of his cheek and neck was blushing, but still chilling to the man. It was surprisingly pleasant to his own heated core and he guessed Daniel hid a potential of some kind of cold power within him.

It had taken Vlad a couple of years to discover his own flame and lightning based abilities, and trusted that the boy would discover his own in due time.

The cold damp of Daniel’s breath left a trail of condensation over Vlad’s warm hand and the boy had all abandoned breathing through his nose by now.

Vlad had been given more contact that he could have wished for and a part of him was satisfied by just holding Daniel this close, but a stronger part of him wanted more. Feel more and make Daniel feel what he felt.

Even though the boy continued to close his eyes, Vlad could tell that every inch of him was focused on the man’s slow movements. Vlad listened to the sound of the boy’s gasps, his gulps and twitching.

The way he shook his head slightly and press his body to his. Vlad couldn’t get enough, couldn’t let it go as his movements made Daniel move along.

The sound of fearful muffled pleas interfered as the hand lifted the vest and white dress-shirt underneath. Heated fingers slipped up under the shirt and travelled across the soft cold muscles.

“From your reaction, I can tell this is the first time anyone has really touched you, Daniel,” he retorted softly down into the black tresses, “made you feel something like this.”

The boy shook his head again, but the older male ignored it, he knew and Daniel knew he was right. The hand continued to run across the firm muscles hidden under pale skin and admired the smoothness and the feeling of the beating heart.

“That Manson girl might like you, but she will never give herself to you like this. No one will ever be this close to you either. I’ve seen how your sister and Maddie restrained themselves from genuinely touch, always called you clingy and ended an embrace all too fast. I can only presume that’s why you started to move closer to me. I never shoved you away like that. I would never take that from you, Daniel.”

The young man tried given Vlad an elbow between the ribs and Vlad dodged the puny attempt easily and pressed warningly the hand to the hammering heart. Making a few sparks of electricity run between his fingers.

The boy seemed to understand the warning and shivered with a muffled yelp. Vlad smiled in return and savored the feeling of Daniel’s lips against his palm.

It was quite amusing how his little badger kept fighting this, deny the pleasure it awaked in him and the emotions that was bound to follow.

“Don’t fight it,” he whispered into the boy’s ear and started to rub slow calming circles over the troubled heart, “you may find me selfish, but this is all for your pleasure, Daniel.”

The smaller body started to shake and nails bite into the edge of the altar, as Daniel had grabbed it for support.

Alone the sight of Daniel like this was enough to bring Vlad over the edge and the picture of Daniel’s submission burned into his mind for time and eternity. He observes the little halfa’s expressions as the hand made its way across the tensing muscles and the fingers start to count the ribs.

Daniel moaned in desperation, producing a series of broken noises and Vlad couldn’t stop listening and relish in the beauty of it. Couldn’t give up the sensation of jerking cold muscles under one palm and the warmer feeling of pleasured huffs under the other.

Vlad had often enjoyed playing the fiddle, but compared to the sounds he could produce just as easy from the young man under him, the violin dulled in comparison.

How long they have been in the chapel, Vlad had no idea, lost to the things Daniel did to him and him to Daniel. Vlad didn’t want this to end and in that moment, he only wished to become one with the other.

Melt into the smaller form and stay in his coldness forever.

Vlad’s fingers stopped by one of the hard nipples and felt how the boy froze completely, keened with a hard shiver and muffled moan. Vlad couldn’t hide the grin as he now had the adolescent melting in his hands.

Vlad’s amusement continued as he now received even more heated sounds from the boy and he turned his treatment of the nipple a little harsher, since that seemed to pleasure the boy the most.

Daniel had started struggling again, but now from different reasons. His back arched, as Vlad moved to the other nipple, making the boy’s muffled cries, and blushing increased.

Vlad’s own breath had turned shallow and he moved the palm over Daniel’s mouth to tilt his head further back. He took in the sight of the visible veins moving under the skin of the throat, the hitching breath and the blushing cheeks.

Daniel’s glowing green eyes stared into his red ones and the boy closed his in shame. Tried to get out of Vlad’s hold ones more and hide from him.

“Daniel, look at me,” he warned with a hush tone, making the young man shake his head even more.

Vlad felt the anger return, wouldn’t let Daniel deny this, “I said. Look at me.”

Daniel gasped for breath as his head was yanked back and the green eyes snapped wide open. His eyes darted, but Vlad held them with his blood red gaze. Felt his breath stop by the sight of the way the black pupil had almost covered the green color.

Vlad guessed his own would have been the same in human form. He couldn’t for his life take his eyes from the sight of the boy’s face. How his eyes plead and his breath held the very essence of innocence.

Vlad could already see the adolescent before him, naked and begging beneath him in the bed with the wine-red canopy. Held down and at his mercy.

Vlad have already more than enough material to imagine the words and sounds Daniel would produce. How Vlad’s name would sound from those pleading lips.

Begging Vlad for more.

Those green eyes only widened as the hand started its slowly downward. Vlad ignored the new wave of desperation wrenches and concentrated on the whimpering, smothered sound of his name and shushed the shaking form against him.

Continued to reach the hem of Daniel’s black slacks and give the boy the release he needed.

He wasn’t surprised when he found that Daniel was already hard. He opened the slacks and the boy gasped loudly as Vlad cupped the stiff member behind the underwear.

The sound of Vlad’s name sounded behind his hand in a mix of lustful pleading and scared protest.

“That’s it, Daniel, let go of your fears.”

Daniel shook his head in return, but it was halfhearted and his moans dragged out as Vlad began to stroke him through the thin material. The hands on the altar clenched and the knuckles turned white as snow.

Vlad decided he needed to be closer and the hand slipped through the underwear to grab the naked member. Daniel pressed back to get room and Vlad could only presume this as instinctive, as Daniel seemed to have lost himself to the movement of Vlad’s hand.

Eyes rolling back into his head and the eyelids closed shot. Moaning his name.

Vlad breathed in pace with him and something told him their hearts was in pace as well. If not their cores.

“ _Yes_ ,” Vlad whispered and felt how Daniel had started to move his hips to follow his hand, “just give yourself over to it, my love…just let me take care of you.”

Daniel made a muffled wail as Vlad’s hand moved faster and the boy was now grinding against him, forcing them closer and pressing himself to the older male. Vlad groaned by the feeling and continued to stroke Daniel as he curled around the smaller hybrid.

Brought them as close as possible and buried his face in the black hair.

Daniel trembled and whimpered as Vlad pressed his thumb over the head of his erection and smeared the pre-cum. Traced the length and felt the black hair at the base.

Even here Daniel was cold to the touch and it occurred to Vlad that his own body and hand had to feel burning to the boy. Leaving a brand of fire across his body and member, as well as in his mind.

“That’s it, little badger,” he whispered into Daniel’s ear with a husky tone, “give yourself to me.”

The green eyes snapped open as if he had wakened Daniel from a trance and Vlad felt how he began to struggle again. Tried to escape.

The trembling breath against his palm turned to muffled shouts and the boy moved as if he wanted to pull away and move into Vlad’s hand at the same time.

Vlad squeezed the member and increased the pace of the strokes, as he felt how close Daniel was. He had tried to drag it out for as long as possible, but knew everything would come to an end.

He concentrated on the sounds, the feeling of Daniel’s body and the sight of pleasure in the green eyes.

Etched every movement, shiver, sound and touch into his memory, knowing that he would become a likewise memory in the mind of Daniel.

The first to ever take him like this.

He exhaled as Daniel went tense under him and came with a sudden shiver. A high-pitched wail pressed against his palm and the little body under him became lax.

Vlad tightened his grip on the young man and meet his dilated eyes. Lifted his hand from the boy’s mouth and heard the full volume of his labored breath. Vlad pushed a strand of damp hair from Daniel’s temple and caressed the flushed cheek.

His voice turned firmly, “you can pray to all the gods you want, Daniel and believe what you want, but there will come a day when you will understand that this and only this, is real. Next time you pray to your God, you will see this before you. See _me._ ”

Vlad released the trembling adolescent and Daniel slide down to the hardstone floor. A shaking hand pressed to Danny’s mouth and eyes wide open. Vlad already missed the feeling of the small body against him, but it was clear that Daniel needed some time.

Daniel looked impossible small and fragile as he sat there on the floor and Vlad sent him one last glance before he turned around and walked out of the chapel.

Danny heard the door close and a broken sob escaped his lips.

Vlad could have spared his speech. Danny now knew that there was no God. If God had existed, he would had punished Vlad for raping Danny. Taking him with force right here on his own holy ground of mercifulness.

If God existed, he would had prevented this. But most of all, he would have punished Danny dearly. Punished him for giving himself over to the man and allow him to take him like that.

Punished him for enjoying Vlad’s touch.

The smell of sex and Vlad still hung on him and to his disgust and shame he found that he had come on the side of the altar. The cum still running down the polished wood.

Danny tried fixing his cloths and lifted his finger to the hem of his collar. Found the silver chain beneath. His mother’s cross appeared at the end of the chain and Danny ripped it from his neck with a little ‘clink’.

The silver cross shone in his palm, but Danny found no comfort in the symbol. He stared ahead with a blank expression as he let the cross fall from his hand.

The little silver cross and chain fell to the hard ground and jumped once before it was caught by a crack between two grey brick stones. Danny watched the cross fell down and vanished into the darkness forever.

Just like his innocents and his last connection to his mother.


	12. Danny take the easy way out and run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny found out more than just Vlad's lust for him that Christmas morning.  
>  _He took a quick peek at Vlad’s privacy and looked into his drawers and wardrobe. He didn’t find anything out of the ordinary or any good blackmail material, but he did find a loaded ecto-gun to his slight surprise. Danny decided not to think too much about it and closed the two doors to the wardrobe again._
> 
> And now there's no turning back for any of them after the incident of the chapel.  
>  _Danny now knew that there was no God. If God had existed, he would had punished Vlad for raping Danny. Taking him with force right here on his own holy ground of mercifulness. If God existed, he would had prevented this. But most of all, he would have punished Danny dearly. Punished him for giving himself over to the man and allow him to take him like that._  
>  _Punished him for enjoying Vlad’s touch._
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys  
> I know this isn't friday - but i'm going to get super busy tomorrow, so here you go!  
> Alright, this chapter is going to be graphic and some of you came for this and there will always be someone who didn't  
> if you're one of them who doesn't want a heavy/dark smut scene like this, you can pretty much just skip this chapter  
> I probably enjoyed writing this too much, it's not even my first time writing a scene with rape theme - but what the hell  
> I wrote it, you can read it and comment if you feel like it  
> hope you enjoy?
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

The silence of the interrogation room was pregnant with dread and Nichols ran a shaking hand across his face. Stared back at Danny. The young man hadn’t made as much as an expression throughout the entire tale of his and Vlad Masters’ collision.

 _I should buy the boy a beer and pat his back or something,_ Nichols thought.

It didn’t matter that this had happened exactly hundred years ago, someone needed to bring this boy some comfort. No one should go through something like that and be left alone afterwards.

No one should go through shit like that at all.

Nichols could only imagine what he would have done if he found out that someone had laid hand on his own son like that. Rick was around the same age as Danny had been at the time and it would crush Nichols to see him broken like Danny.

Turned into nothing but a hollow shell of the happy boy he once had been.

“I had a dream that night,” Danny said quietly, “I dreamt that I was with Phantom, my ghost half. I saw my mother butcher him with one of her ecto-blades. I told her to stop, but she didn’t hear me. It was like I had become a ghost completely, couldn’t make her see me or listen.”

The immortal boy, or rather young grownup, exhaled like such a scenario was boring to him, “Vlad didn’t eat me as in the story of the Juniper tree, but he kissed Phantom’s severed head and licked the green ectoplasm from his lips. Guess his ghost form made me think of him as Dracula or something, hehe.”

Nichols didn’t share in on the humor and felt nausea creep in on him.

Danny chuckled, “then Jazz gathered up the bloody pieces of Phantom and carried him of to go somewhere else. I never found out where. I could just watch and do nothing about it. Just like in real life. What a pretty bird I am.”

Danny continued to chuckle by himself and didn’t stop for several minutes. He sniffed drily and turned back to the man with a wry smile that didn’t hold any warmth.

“Still wanna hear the rest?”

Nichols really didn’t, but the curiosity was eating him up from inside and he sighed, “what did you do after that? Ran, hopefully.”

“That seemed like the only thing to do,” Danny conceded with a shrug, “I packed the stuff I needed and waited until nightfall before I sneaked out and flew as far as I could. I had no idea where Jazz lived, she always visited me and I even if I knew, I wouldn’t put her or Dean at risk, and decided to write to her instead. I was too afraid to sleep and flew until I reached London. I bought a ticket to a ship that would lead me far away from anyone I knew and posted letters to Jazz, Sam and Tucker. Explained why I couldn’t see them anymore and that I would be okay. The usual things…”

Nichols frowned, “and then you left England?”

Danny shook his head, “I didn’t get that far, Vlad was prepared that I would do something like that apparently. I guess I was pretty easy to figure out. He had a ghost following me and I came face to face with the ghost he had posted by my school. Skulker, the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter.”

He chuckled again with a grin, “good ol’ Skulker couldn’t let an opportunity like that pass him by. As one of the only existing halfas, catching me would be an honor in itself. I could tell he was disappointed that he could bring me back to the Ghost Zone and keep me in one of his cages, but Vlad was waiting for me back at the castle and he had to hand me back over.”

“Sounds like a pretty strong ghost,” Nichols noted, but Danny waved him of.

“Meh, he’s kinda strong, but not halfa league. He only caught me because of his advantage. I thought I could take Vlad out in a crowded place, hadn’t expected him to send a ghost after me. Skulker used his little poison darts and waited for me to pass out on the bench by the rails. When I woke up again I was neatly wrapped like a present in Vlad’s lap. He wasn’t exactly… _happy._ ”

 

 _Year 1917, The Masters estate, Yorkshire, England_

_**“He wasn’t exactly…**_ **happy.”**   

 

His head was throbbing and a taste of metal was left on his tongue.

“Did you get the letters?”

Danny’s eyelids shuddered slightly as he started to get aware of his surroundings. The sound of heavy metal came somewhere from above him and the surface he was resting one moved a bit. A hand returned to his hair and started to pet it.

It was kind of nice, but didn’t help on the headache.

Paper rustled right next to his ear.

“I see, only three? He didn’t make any calls?”

“No calls. The whelp just brought a ticket to Shanghai.”

“Hmm, Shanghai, that’s far of.”

The petting continued and Danny tried keeping down his movements, as he listened in.

Vlad…Vlad was petting him. Danny realized with a shiver that he was resting his head on the man’s lap. The hand in his hair paused for a second and Danny thought he had been caught faking his unconsciousness, but then the hand returned to its calming soothing.

Danny exhaled inwards in relief and started to feel his way around him without drawing attention to himself.

He was bound. The ropes strangely flexible and warm, but no giving an inch as he tried to free his bound feet and his hands in front of him. He tried phasing them of, but found that he couldn’t.

He couldn’t run with bound feet and hands like this, but he could still fly, clumsy as it would be. The same warm material was covering his mouth and keeping him from breathing soundless, as his breath became more hectic.

Vlad didn’t seem to notice as he continued to comb his long fingers through Danny’s hair. Sending chills down his spine in disgust.

“You can fetch your payment down the lab. The new guns should be to your likening, Skulker.”

Danny dared to open one of his eyes to a narrow crack.

A ghost with the physics of a robot nodded to a spot above Danny’s head, before phasing down the floor. Danny had never seen the huge specter before, but the name was well-known. It was the ghost guarding his school. The one protecting Sam and Tucker.

A part of him actually felt a little offended about being captured by this ghost. Sam and Tucker had told him Skulker was kind of an idiot. A capable and dangerous idiot, but still and idiot.

His attention was forced back to his real capture as Vlad continued to rustle with papers above him. Danny’s letters he realized. Meaning his only chance to warn his sister and friends of Vlad was out with the old bathwater.

Danny tried moving the restrains again and cracked the eye open again. Found that the restrains actually wasn’t humanmade, but ghost-made.

The glowing green ropes would keep him from breaking them with force, meaning he had to wait for the right moment to turn ghost and do it and –

The hand tightened its grip in his hair.

“Perhaps you’re ready to face me now that Skulker has left?”

Danny felt a sting of anxiety by the cold tone, but the humiliation of being found out took most of the space in his mind. He opened his eyes and tuned his head to send the man the most loathing eyes in his arsenal.

Despite the black spots before his eyes, Vlad’s face came fast into focus and he stared down at him with an indulged grin. The face of a winner.

“You look quite pathetic, you know that, don’t you?” Vlad suddenly said, tilting his head to get a better look at him, “but it has a certain charm to it. Maybe I’ll keep this.”

He gestured to the green ropes around Danny’s writs and the restrained adolescent growled angry.

“MHHHMmmmHGGmmmMM!”

“I didn’t quite catch that, my boy, care to repeat?”

Danny cursed the man behind the green gag and Vlad chuckled entertained. A certain glint in his eye told Danny that the meaning of his muffled voice and silent wishing off a painful death on the man’s behalf hadn’t past him by.

Vlad grabbed his bound hands and dragged him further up on his lap. Making Danny’s upper half resting against his chest.

Danny struggled, but whatever sedate Skulker had used on him, still had some impact and Vlad held him down with an arm locked around him. Continued to pet his hair with the other and stared down at him with lidded eyes.

“I had hoped you would see my ways and stopped your childish play, but it seems like I will have to make myself clear to you, Daniel,” Vlad said tiredly and send Danny a stern look, like he was some rebellious child, “you should be more thankful as well. I took you and your family in and took care of you children after your mother’s death. All I ever did and _still_ do, is caring for you, feed you, cloth you and love you. And then you betray me like this…”

He tsked, shaking his head scornfully and digged his nails into Danny’s side as he tried to wrestle free.

Danny winced and became still, “hmhhhhmmmmmmm mmh!”

Vlad ignored him in favor of the letters. Danny’s letters. He glared hatefully at the man as he read the personal words Danny had wrote for his loved ones like he had the right to.

Danny looked around now that Vlad’s focus was elsewhere and found that they were in the man’s bedroom. The fire crackled in the fireplace by the wall and lighted the dark room as well as a couple of lambs.

Danny moved his eyes from the sofa group they were seated in – or laid on in his case – and found that it was night outside. It had been midday last time he remembered.

How long had he been out?

Danny’s eyes darted in panic. Vlad’s creepy calmness didn’t fool him one second. The man was angry if not pissed at him.

The blunt nails in his hair was combing his hair a little harsher than necessary and the man’s underlying body language told Danny that one wrong move could push the man over the edge and leave a violent Vlad in his place.

Danny had seen glimpse of him during training and would avoid a fist confrontation at all cost, but if he wanted to escape, the chances of a pretty outcome was five feet under.

Danny had a pretty good idea what was going to happen to him, but the exact character of his punishment was still unclear.

Vlad was in an unpredictable corner and Danny swallowed worried. Maybe he could talk his ways out of this? The man had said he loved him, he had caught that part during Vlad’s sanctimonious speech.

Danny guessed they were in Vlad’s bedroom of two reasons. One was obvious, but the other could be the fact that Vlad didn’t want the servants to see Danny like this. Meaning someone would hear him if he screamed…maybe.

They wouldn’t be a threat to Vlad, but they could be a distraction he could use to escape. Right now, he was bound, but if Vlad planned on… _raping_ him, he would need to remove the restrains form his legs…right?

Danny wasn’t sure, but hoped so. Vlad would remove the ecto-goo covering his mouth to, the man had seemed to like his…noises…back then.

The memory made Danny feel like vomiting, but the restrains would force him to swallow it, so he forced it down. Wouldn’t think about that right now. That turned out to be harder than thought.

The knowledge that he could look forward to being molested any minute now was nerve wrecking and made his guts knot. His breath became labored and he couldn’t get enough air with his nose alone.

Danny’s troubles seemed to have caught Vlad’s attention and he sent him an unreadable look as he folded the letters neatly in his hand.

“You really should learn to hide your intentions, Daniel,” he drawled and caressed the boy’s cheek tenderly, ignoring that the boy turned his head in aversion, “by the looks of it, you’ve patched up some plan to leave again and run from your feelings, if not responsibilities.”

Danny was going to spat _“what responsibilities!?”_ but it only came out as muffled sounds.

Vlad smirked, “and judging by the false bravado, I’ll say you’re scared, little badger.”

Danny's eyes darted to the canopy bed and Vlad chuckled, “afraid I will _rape_ you, Daniel? Hold you down while molesting you to death? Force myself on you like some ruthless monster?”

Hearing the man say it like that made the fear acid his blood and his urge to vomit return.

“Oh, don’t get your sweet little head in a tangle, Daniel, do you really believe me to be that cruel? Hmm?”

 _Yes!_ Danny thought and scowled hateful. The way the man had seized him back at the chapel and forced himself upon Danny, still made the boy skittish with anxiety.

“These letters certainly say so. Such charming choice of words as well,” he drawled and flipped the little package of folded letters in his hand with a thoughtful expression, “apparently, I took you without your consent. Hurt you and showed my…what was it again? Oh! _‘Animalistic tendencies.'_ ”

The little pack of letters burnt into flames in the man’s hand and fell down on the cushions as nothing more than ashes.

Danny forced all his wrath and hate into the scowl he sent the man and Vlad scoffed in return, “such harsh words, badger – but I think you forgot to mention a couple of important details. As I recall it, you weren’t exactly _unwilling._ If the rutting against me and your lovely sounds was anything to go by, that is.”

Danny blushed and shook his head in denial, something that clearly annoyed Vlad, but Danny didn’t care. He wasn’t like that, he wasn’t into men and especially not Vlad! He wasn’t some, some _Nancy!_

Vlad grabbed his chin to make him look at the man and when he refused, Vlad grabbed him by the wrinkled collar to lift him face to face. The fact that he was almost straddling his lap and pressed his bound hands against the man’s hard chest, made him sweat in cold fear.

“Stop this childish stubbornness,” Vlad snarled angry and yanked Danny’s head back by the hair as Danny tried to get away, “I will not tolerate you denying this anymore! I haven’t waited for you to let your silly morals get in my way, do you understand?”

Danny yelled into his restrain and focused enough of his weakened body to comply and phased through the sofa and Vlad.

The man gasped from the coldness of Danny’s core phasing through his and likewise Danny winced from the feeling of having his core scalded. He crawled to the door and heard Vlad stand from the sofa to pursue him with angry footsteps.

Danny tried going ghost, but his body was still speed healing him and fighting to get the sedate out of his system. Left him weakened.

Danny got enough power cannel into his hands to break the ropes around his ankles and jumped to his staggering feet to reach the door. Vlad followed him as Danny fell into the corridor and got the goo of his mouth.

“HELP!” he yelled in panic, “SOMEONE PLEASE!”

Behind him Vlad sighed and followed along with a bored expression, “Daniel.”

“Help me for god’s sake!” Danny screamed and fought to get back on his feet.

Vlad looked down on him with a mocking look of pity. He even had the audacity to pull out his pocket watch to wait for the rescue along with him.

When no alarmed servants came running for his rescue or to see what was causing all this commotion, Vlad returned the timepiece to his pocket and crouched down to be in high with Danny.

“Well, entertaining as this is, yelling for the servants and dragging them into our affairs isn’t exactly an option today,” Vlad smirked, “I have given them all free to visit family. And before you ask ever so charming, no, they won’t return before a couple of days. They believe us to be visiting your sister. Meaning we are alone, Daniel.”

He observed how Danny had turned pale as snow and his breath had changed to an alarming stage. Danny couldn’t believe this, there was no one around? Nobody!? Danny’s eyes darted in panic. Oh god, Vlad could practically kill him and none would be here to hear his screams.

With his powers weakened like this and at the man’s complete mercy he was utterly screwed.

“Daniel.”

Screwed – and not just in one way. Oh god, he was going t-to -!

Danny gasped in shock as Vlad slapped him.

“Don’t go give yourself a panic attack, Daniel, it’s not becoming,” he said drily and pulled him to his feet.

Danny produced an animalistic snarl and headbutted him. Vlad groaned in pain and Danny moved to get away, but wasn’t fast enough. Vlad kicked him in the back and sent him head first into the wall.

Danny landed hard on his hands and knees and turned around to face Vlad again.

Vlad was towering over him with a murdering scowl. He touched the part of his cheekbone Danny had colored with a bruise and the man observed the blood coating his fingertips, before snapping his eyes back to Danny.

Danny yelped and tried to scramble back, but Vlad caught him and grabbed his bound writs.

He believed the worst, but then Vlad broke the restrains around his wrists and moved back with a shooing gesture. Danny could only stare at him and Vlad crossed his arms.

“You want me to hurt you, Daniel?” he growled, making Danny’s eyes widen, “well then…I’ll give you a five minute’ head start.”

Danny blinked perplexed, not sure if he had understood, but when Vlad took out his pocket watch to count the time. He sent Danny a smile that held to much malice and fangs to be considered human.

“Tick tock, little badger.”

Danny staggered to his feet, looked one last time on the man and turned around.

He ran as fast as his body and will allowed, and used his returning powers to turn tangible and phase through closed doors and walls.

He gasped in relief as he reached the grand entrance and phased outside.

   
 

It was still dark outside and his breath had become labored from running through the forest surrounding the castle.

Danny stopped to listen and continued on, fearing that Vlad had found him. Danny channeled all his energy on suppressing his core, hid its beacon from Vlad and keep him hidden.

Danny had no concept of time, but knew for certain that the given five minutes had passed by now. Vlad was out there somewhere looking for him and the only hope Danny had of escaping was to drag out time and wait for his speed-healing to fight the sedate in his system.

Danny had already vomited a few trees back and hoped it was his ghost-half’s way of filtering out the poison. Danny scouted the dark sky above him and for ones in his life the star filled vison of the clear night sky didn’t fill him with wonder.

Vlad would probably look for him from the above and Danny kept to the shading trees, hid in their shadows. The white ground didn’t make things easier for him as he could only imagine how visible he had to be from above in the snow.

Luckily for him, his traveling attire was black and his hair dark as well. Only his face and hands would stand out in the shadow if he was unlucky.

Which he was.

Danny stumbled into a clearing and realized this vulnerable position to late. He caught the sound of a fluttering cape in time and leaped to the side, as Plasmius punched his flaring fist into the spot of air Danny had occupied a second before.

Danny guessed suppressing his core was a lost cause and focused his powers on going ghost instead.

Despite his clear anger, Vlad smirked by the sight of the ghost-boy’s attire. Danny reminded himself to get another ghost outfit than the tight black battle suit and amour as soon as he was finished here and started to circle along with Vlad.

Danny copied his steps, recalling his training and began to read his opponent. He knew most of Vlad’s abilities and had figured some of his weaknesses, but Vlad had the same advantage if not greater, since he had trained him and knew of all Danny’s powers.

“No banter to humor me, Daniel?” Vlad asked with a wicked smile and Danny scowled as he kept up the footwork.

“I don’t have any insult you’re not already aware of yourself,” Danny spat in return and dodged as Vlad lashed out after him with an ecto-strike.

The tree taking the hit burst into flames and Vlad turned back to him with the fire illuminating his from.

He chuckled with a hint of scorn, “I’m pleased to see you have learned to keep up your guards – but how is the hand to hand combat going for you, my boy?”

Danny hurried to make a shield as Vlad came at him again. Danny lowered the shield to kick him away and yelled as Vlad got hold of his black boot and threw him against the nearest tree.

It broke from the impact and Danny groaned on the snowy ground before Vlad send him deeper into the woods with another kick. Danny was back on his feet as Vlad’s shot up to him and Danny dodged his ecto-rays as he flew at the halfa.

Vlad was ready with a pink shield, but not prepared for Danny making a somersault over him and punching him with an ecto-strike from behind. Vlad growled in return and pursuit Danny into the cold night sky.

Danny summoned his ghost-tail to reach higher speed. Something Vlad couldn’t copy or keep pace with.

“Bullocks!” Danny yelped as Vlad teleported in front of him and kicked him down from the sky. Danny fell to the ground like a stone and hit the ground even harder. He had just got his vision back as Vlad came over him.

A black gloved hand locked around his throat with a squish and Danny’s insult was killed in a choking sound. Vlad forced him to his feet with a maniac grin and allowed his prey enough air to scream as red sparks of electricity ran through Danny’s body.

“Oh, Daniel, must I really defeat you with one hand on my back?” he asked with a crackle and pulled the panting halfa to him with a large smirk when the rings suddenly formed, “ah, ah, ah, Daniel, can’t have you changing back so soon, now can we?”

He flung Danny of him and the young halfa returned to his feet with glowing eyes. His voice growling.

Plasmius put up his hands in mocking fear, “oh, the scary eyes and such noises. As much as I enjoy your new lack of verbal fighting, I think I will prefer you moaning my name.”

Vlad caught Danny’s fist before it could collide with his face and grabbed the other likewise, keeping the other from wrestle free effortlessly.

Vlad leaned down to Danny’s angry face with a husky whisper, “I plan on making you scream it tonight, to be precise.”

“Like hell I will, you disgusting monster!” Danny barked and kicked him in the guts.

It had been a lucky hit and Vlad groaned as he fell to his knees. Danny turned his back on the pained halfa and made ready to fly off when a jolt of core shredding pain rushed through him.

Danny screamed to the heavens and felt as if he would tear apart. To white rings formed around his midsection and before he knew it he was human again. Danny patted his limbs in shock.

“What!? What just –!?”

He grunted as a boot connected with his shins and send him to the ground. Danny tried turning back ghost and to his horror found that he couldn’t. A pair of black boots moved into his vision and Danny looked up to meet the vicious laughter of Vlad Plasmius.

“What did you do to me!?” Danny shouted in rage and was kicked to land on his back.

His eyes widened in fear as Plasmius stranded him with a smirk. He lifted a device for Danny to see.

“Oh that? I simple shorted out your powers, my boy,” he grinned and held the struggling boy down, “I call it ‘the Plasmius maximus’, it will keep you from turning ghost for three hours, which should provide us with enough time for what I have planned for tonight.”

“No!” Danny protested as Vlad teleported them and Danny felt the cold hard ground be replaced by silk and wine-red sheets.

“Vlad, no!” Danny all but begged as Vlad turned back human and held him down with his weight.

Danny winced fearful as the man laid a palm against his cheek. Reminding Danny of the incident at the chapel. Vlad sighed by the sight of the young man’s fear and his eyes became lidded again. His voce pensive. Scaring Danny to the core.

“You have no idea how much you mean to me, do you, Daniel?” he asked without waiting for an answer, “how genuinely choked and elated I became from discovering that there was another ghost-hybrid as myself and found someone as wonderful as you. That I wasn’t alone in this damned world and finally had found another person to keep by my side.”

Danny couldn’t take it and thrashed to get out of Vlad’s hold.

“But what about mom?” he asked in panic and attempt to keep Vlad talking…for three hours, “I thought you loved her!? That you wanted her!”

Vlad scoffed by that, “as much as Madeline once enthralled me, Daniel, she could never outshine you. Maddie was a fleeting romance, but you…you’re are the only one that could ever stand up to me. The only one to ever become my equal.”

“But you wanted me as a son! You –”

“I wanted you as a son _at first_ to honor her memory, forced myself not to think of you as I did,” Vlad continued pressing his thumb to Danny’s quivering lip, “but after I saw you transform…I knew it had to be. I have already waited years for you to realize the same and now…”

He grinned and seized Danny's chin. Danny’s pupils enlarged as the man whispered into his ear.

“I’m done waiting.”

Danny’s angry reply was downed out as Vlad slammed their lips together and held the struggling halfa in place beneath him. Danny grimaced in disgust and kept Vlad from getting any further by pressing his lips together.

Vlad just chuckled and went for his exposed and outstretched neck instead. Leaving burning kisses and making angry hickeys on the pale skin.

Danny groaned as Vlad sucked and bite him, the smaller male wriggled one of his legs free and aimed to kick the man, but Vlad had seen that one coming and just forced his leg to his hip, making him position himself between Danny’s legs and brought them even closer than before.

Danny went into full panic now and put all his effort into wrestling the man. Vlad caught one of his flying fists and sat up with an angry scowl.

Danny returned it with doubled the loathing and scooted back against the headboard to put some distance.

A sudden smile twitched the corner of Vlad’s mouth and lifted his hands to his collar, without letting go of Danny’s eyes one second. Danny gulped as he realized Vlad was going to undress in front of him…again.

Danny evaded his eyes as Vlad unbuttoned his three-piece-suit and the man chuckled.

“Why so shy all of a sudden, Daniel?” he asked amused as Danny’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment, “you seemed to like watching me undress.”

“Shut up,” Danny whispered, tried not to think of what would follow. Vlad just shook his head with a smirk and opened his red tie for it to land on the floor along with his jacket and west.

Danny suddenly realized this was his chance and looked from the wardrobe to Vlad. Vlad’s eyes were still on the buttons of his white dress shirt. Danny calculated that he would have the head start of five seconds to the wardrobe.

To Vlad’s ecto-gun.

Enough time to give him a chance. Maybe the only chance he would get.

He bolted for the wardrobe as Vlad popped the last of his shirt buttons and lunged for the two door handles. Vlad was over him a second later and pressed him against the mirror on the inside of the wooden door.

“Looking for this?” he asked jeering and showed Danny the gun.

Danny tried to snatch it out of his hand, but Vlad was faster and pressed the gun to the wall. Danny’s last hope disappeared as the gun was phased inside the wall and out of his reach.

Danny’s hopelessness got an extra inch as Vlad summoned ecto-ropes and bound his writs together. He dragged the cursing adolescent back to the bed and ignored the colorful insults, as he secured that Danny’s hands was bound securely to the headboard.

“You son of a bitch!” Danny yelled, fighting to get his hands free and received a slap across the cheek.

Vlad growled warningly by the angry scowl Danny send him.

“What have I said about cursing, Daniel? Not in my house.”

“Fuck you and your house!” Danny replied with the bravado he could muster and Vlad scoffed with a wry smile.

“Trust me, you will only have to do one of those two options.”

“Never!”

Vlad grinned, “I had hoped you would play hard to get,” and phased off the clothing of Danny’s upper half.

Danny shrieked by the loss of protection and gasped in revulsion as Vlad and him now where shitless and skin to skin.

Danny tried to kick him as Vlad phased their shoes and socks of, and Vlad grinned vigorously to him before returning to his former worshipping of Danny’s neck and collarbone. Now with his heated hands on Danny’s exposed torso.

Danny forced back a moan as Vlad reached the sensitive spot behind his ear and Vlad send him a knowing glance.

“There is really no use fighting, Daniel, I plan on making this enjoyable for the both of us. After all, you belong to me now for time and eternity.”

“You can’t and I don’t belong to anyone!” Danny snarled and Vlad turned down replying in favor of biting Danny’s left nipple.

Danny ached with a gasp and closed his legs tightly together as Vlad started to tease him with his tongue and suck on the defenseless nub.

The sweet pain mixed with the burning trails Vlad’s hands left on his naked stomach, send waves of pleasure to his brain like a firework and Danny bit his tongue to keep down the sounds that threatened to spill and tell Vlad the result of his treatment.

Danny had promised himself never to beg like he had done in the chapel again. Never to beg Vlad and pleaded him as he had done against his scalding palm. Never to submit freely to the man’s touch or whimper his name as pathetic as he had done back then.

He wouldn’t submit to Vlad like that ever again. Bring down shame upon himself.

Over his dead body!

He heaved in a large gulp of air as Vlad stuck his tongue down his naval and a series of strained moans escaped him. Vlad smirked and admired the flustered mess he had created before forcing his and the young man’s mouths together again.

This time Danny was less prepared and felt Vlad’s tongue gain access. Danny tried his best to ignore the pleasure the man inflicted with his skilled hands and tongue, but found himself fighting for dominance as the kiss deepened.

Vlad took up the challenge, pleased that Danny was participating now and won easily a sweet victory. He bit Danny’s lower lip with a deep groan and Danny snapped back to focus.

Vlad drew back as Danny bit his tongue. The man stared a little surprised down at him and Danny returned Vlad’s look with loathing. Vlad felt the taste of cobber fill his mouth and licked the blood that had ran down his chin slowly.

Danny shivered by the sight and made the man grin in return.

“Someone seems to like it rough,” he cooed and Danny spat the blood in his face.

“I swear when I get my powers back –”

“Then what?” Vlad asked challenging, drying his face of the little specks of blood, “you plan on killing me, my boy, is that it? Win a bloody, but unrealistic battle against me and go back to your sister and little friends? Hmmm? Are you sure you’re ready to face them with my blood on your hands?”

Danny blinked, hadn’t thought that far. Killing Vlad…Danny wasn’t even sure he wanted what, but then he remembered what Vlad had done to him in the chapel and decided, that yes. He would kill Vlad.

The man seemed to read all this in his eyes and placed a possessive hand above Danny’s heart.

“You might not believe it, but that only makes us more alike. I to wouldn’t be afraid to take another man’s life – but taking the life of the only person in this world that could ever understand you, my boy? The only person to ever stay by your side as your family and loved ones die of age?”

Danny held his gaze with a determined scowl.

“Yes,” Danny hissed.

Vlad stared into his eyes for a long time. Ransacked him to his naked core.

Danny believed for a second that this would be it. Vlad would release him and send him away, let him go out of understanding or disdain. Danny’s hopes were broken like thin glass as Vlad lighted up in an honest smile.

Danny felt the blood leave his veins. That was a hidden promise in that smile.

“I’ll make you see.”

Danny scooted back and hit his head against the headboard as Vlad crawled back to him, “wait! Vlad, no! No! I said no!”

“Don’t care,” Vlad replied with a growl and slammed their mouths together.

If he had been rough on Danny before, it was nothing compared to now. Danny’s mind was assaulted with white lights of pleasure as Vlad almost raped his mouth with his tongue and forced his legs apart.

Danny lost his last breath as Vlad grinded against him and grabbed his behind possessively. Just like the first time they had kissed in the lab, Danny froze as he felt the man’s erection press against him.

Danny yanked to get his hands free, but the glowing restrained proved to be stronger and Vlad ran a hand over his stretched arm, making nerves flare up and his mind beg for more.

No! Danny clawed at the restrain and wriggle to get free under the larger male. Tasted Vlad’s blood on his tongue and the fangs scraping against his own blunt teeth in violent passion.

Seeing that the young man responded more on a rougher treatment, Vlad dragged his nails down Danny’s chest and felt the muscles jump and twitch under his nails. Danny turned his head from his and moaned like a million-dollar mistress.

Danny froze, blushed by his own outburst in shock and Vlad couldn’t stop laughing.

Danny turned his face away in shame while Vlad’s laughter filled the bedroom and Danny scrunched his eyes together as Vlad’s teeth found his sensitive earlobe.

“I would never had guessed you to be a masochist, sweet Daniel.”

“I hate you,” Danny whispered in return and made Vlad look at him.

Vlad smiled with lidded red eyes.

“Not as much as I hate you, little badger.”

Danny didn’t understand and Vlad didn’t elaborate. Instead, Vlad’s touches and kissed turned more tender and less hurried. Danny closed his eyes and tried to think of something else.

Anything.

The image of Sam suddenly came to him and Danny opened his eyes wide.

He would never be able to look Sam in the eyes again if Vlad completed this.

Danny’s mind went into overdrive and gave him renewed will to fight Vlad. Danny struggled like hell and tried toppling the man with his legs and get him of him.

Vlad growled in warning and grabbed his hips, but Danny didn’t care and pulled against his restrains to get to the headboard and out of Vlad’s hold.

Vlad yanked him back down underneath him, but not without almost getting hit by Danny’s elbow. Danny tried to turn his chin down, but Vlad laced a hand around his throat first and started to tighten his grip.

Danny struggled to get free and get some air, which just made the man squish even harder.

Black dots had begun to speck the outer corner of his eyes, when the pressure around his throat suddenly stopped and allowed him to drawn well needed air.

Danny hacket and coughed painfully, still feeling some sort of phantom hands around his throat, but Vlad’s hands were both on his shoulders now.

“You are making it very hard to be patient with you, Daniel,” Vlad warned him, but Danny didn’t care and glared at him hatefully, showing him that he wasn’t afraid of him. Vlad’s red eyes narrowed and he grabbed Danny’s hair to yank his face close to his.

“I wouldn’t test me if I were you, little badger, not when I hold the lives of your sister and friends in my palm.”

That made Danny go cold. He starred into those blood-red eyes and felt the weight of the severely promises in them. Danny shook his head halfhearted.

“You wouldn’t – “

“Oh, rather the contrary, my boy, I can assure you that I would. You have already experienced the capability of my employee Skulker. If I wasn’t him superior I strength you could have looked forward to spending the rest of eternity in one of his cages inside his lair in the Ghost Zone. I only need to make one call to arrange something similar for the dear Mr. Foley and Miss. Manson.”

Danny swallowed loudly and that seemed to encourage the man to continued.

“That is, if he doesn’t find them to plain a prey and just kill them for the sake of the skin. He has a rather large collection of those, I can tell you. Oh, and as for our sweet, sweet Jasmine…”

Vlad smiled wicked and extended the moment way longer that it should be legal, “you must understand that her husband’s future relies on me alone, Daniel. Dean Thornwood might be my shipping partner in a corporation equal to my own, but a single phone call to one of his rivals and an offering of a partnership is all it will take to crush the Thornwoods to dust.”

Vlad’s long fingers started to massage his scalp and Vlad relished in the defeated look of his prey.

“Don’t think I won’t do it, my love. If ruining your sister is what it takes to make you see I’m serious, then I won’t hesitate.”

Danny closed his eyes. Saw the haunting images before his eyelids.

He would be an utter fool to believe Vlad wasn’t being honest about punishing him with his loved ones. Sam and Tucker was skilled ghost hunters, but they trusted Skulker to some distinct because of him and his words of trusting Vlad.

They would never see the danger until it was too late. The best outcome would be them held as a zoo animal and worst-case scenario…

Danny shivered.

And Jazz. Sweet, bossy, beautiful, annoying Jazz. His last family and the person he owed most in this world. The only person he couldn’t live with and still not live without.

Her fortune and marriage would never survive a catastrophe like that. They would be ruined and become poor, if Vlad didn’t take them in. Danny knew what happened to ruined businessmen like Dean and could almost hear the shoot of the smoking gun.

If Thornwood didn’t press the gun to his head himself, the debt collectors would do it for him. And where would that leave Jazz? 

Danny felt his eyes water and the will to fight die out like melted snow. Vlad kissed the corner of his mouth and was pleased when Danny didn’t turn his head away.

None of them said a word as Vlad released Danny from the ecto-rope and the younger laid his arms around the other’s neck. Danny did as he was advised without a word and hid his tears against the crook of Vlad’s neck.

Vlad inhaled his hair in satisfaction and phased of their last clothes. Danny winced as he was now naked against the man and lost the last of his protection. His breath turned shaking as the man now roamed his body freely and covered the younger male in his warmth.

Vlad groaned in bliss as he pressed in between the smaller male’s legs and felt Danny tremble. The boy’s fears were soon drowned out by the grubbing of Vlad’s skilled hands and heated lips. Danny just wanted it to be over and gave in.

Maybe if he collaborated, Vlad would hurry and put an end to it. He wasn’t that lucky unfortunate.

Vlad took his sweet time with him. Ran his rough hands down his thighs, making Danny’s half hard member throb every time those burning hands got close to his most sensitive area.

Vlad breathed heavy and grinded their erections together in a slow maddening pace. Making Danny go crazy, as he was held in a limbo between release and falling back down.

Danny tried to keep his sounds on a minimum, but Vlad seemed determined on making him sing and would give his more sensitive spots extra attention and work to make Danny give in.

It left Danny in a heated daze, making him forget why he had feared this at the beginning. The cause of his fears returned like a bucket of ice cold water, when Vlad pressed a sleek digit to his entrance.

Danny hadn’t even registered that the man had reached over to the bedtable to get small jar of a sweet-smelling petroleum jell.

“No please don’t!” Danny utter and tried to get away from Vlad’s finger, but the man just held him tenderly and shushed him gently.

“Don’t be afraid, little badger, just breath in and try relax.”

Danny fought with his shaking heart and tried to do as Vlad said.

The loving tone and smile of Vlad’s actually calmed him down and for a moment Danny could recognized the Vlad he had cared for. The man who had trained him and kept him company for so long.

The man he trusted.

Then the finger was trusted into him and Danny winced. Vlad kept him pinned against him with a hand in his hair and started to whisper encouraging sweet nothings into his ear.

Danny whimpered with swimming eyes as the finger began to trust inside him and the burning sensation was replaced by an odd feeling, as the lubricant started to do its work.

Danny’s protests retuned as a second finger joined the first and he clung to Vlad in pain as a third was added. The praises and heated words along with the movement of the man’s heated body was his only distraction and not enough.

The pain added up and Danny turned his head to kiss Vlad in a last attempt to distract himself from what was happening to him. Vlad grinned smugly into the kiss and Danny hated him for it.

But not as much as he hated himself.

The three fingers scissored and trusted faster, making his inner tissue burn and his backside protest in pain. Danny’s little cries soon turned into moans as the feeling turned more pleasurable and Vlad started to go deeper.

Danny jolted as Vlad reached a spot inside him that made stars explode before his eyes. Vlad smirked by the sound of Danny’s airless moan and trusted his finger into his prostate again and again.

Vlad kissed him and Danny’s head went haywire as he lost himself to the stimulation that ran through his body like electricity. He wasn’t prepared when the inevitable finally came.

He hadn’t felt Vlad remove his fingers, distracted as he had been by his kisses and touch. Vlad had kept him busy and lured him into a state of false security.

Danny froze as he felt something way bigger than a finger line up against his entrance and Vlad continued to kiss him as he kneeled over him. Making no room for him to close his legs or escape as the last gab between them was about to close.

Pure panic rushed through his veins and replaced the pleasure with cold dead fear. Vlad showed no mercy as he buried his fangs in Danny’s shoulder, kept him in place like an animal and Danny could only shout in protest, as Vlad trusted inside him.

Danny screamed.

Despise the preparing, his inner walls burned by the intrusion and sent pain through his body. Vlad groaned as he pressed the last inch into him and felt Danny’s tight walls swallow his length whole.

Danny trashed with tears streaming down his cheeks and Vlad bit down harder to keep him from getting away. Drawing blood as he broke the skin.

The weight of the man’s length inside him, made Danny sob and he tightened his arms around the groaning man’s neck.

“God, you’re so tight,” Vlad whispered and held still for a moment to relish in the feeling of the boy beneath him and gave Danny some time to adjust.

Danny cried out again as the man started to move, trusting at a slow pace. Danny’s agonizing screams filled the bedroom and Vlad grabbed the boy’s shoulder to trust deeper and gasped against the boy.

Danny’s erection was pressed between them and Danny felt it throb as Vlad hit that spot again. Turning his cries of pain into smothered groans of pleasure.

Vlad aimed for it and started to trust faster, picking up speed and made the boy cry out and whispered his name in bliss. Vlad pressed them closer with a hand under Danny’s back and caressed his hair with loving strokes.

Danny was shaking from the pain and forced pleasure, lost in his own personal hell and whined as Vlad smacked their lips together again.

Turned his head to any desired angle with the fist securely in the black tresses and made Danny choke, as he couldn’t get enough air. His lips became bruised from the man’s hunger and Danny thought his jaw would break.

Vlad’s trust became more rapid, as they both got close and Danny cried out in a mix of pleasure and pain, as Vlad grabbed his member and started to pump him along with his trusts.

Danny fell over the edge and came with a shaken groan. Vlad let out a shaken breath as Danny’s insides tightened around him and he trusted against the aching body under him, until he came inside Danny with his name on his lips.

Danny groaned as the man rode out the orgasm and pressed the boy’s boneless body into the mattresses. Danny was a shaking mess when Vlad finally stopped and Danny whimpered as the man pulled out of him.

Danny closed his eyes by the feeling of the spilled seed and blood between his legs and the hollow feeling the lack of Vlad’s length left him with.

Both were still breathing heavily as they lay their side by side and Danny didn’t open up his eyes until he felt the dip of the bed and heard the door to the bathroom close.

With a pained groan, Danny turned over to rest on his side and covered his tired eyes. The tears still wet against his cheeks, where Vlad hadn’t kissed them away.

The stickiness between his legs and his stomach made Danny want to die and the shame of the sounds and cries he had made, brought him to teas and he sobbed into his hands.

He had no more tears to spill, but that didn’t prevent his body from shaking like it did. He had calmed down to a slightly more tolerable level when Vlad returned.

Danny winced as the man placed a warm washcloth on his soiled body and began to clean him with gentle movements. Danny hissed as the cloth reached his most sensitive area and Vlad kissed his temple like a tender lover.

Danny stared blankly into the bedroom, as Vlad pressed him flush against him on the middle of the clean side of the bed and started to massage his shoulder and hips. Danny closed his eyes and tried to ignore it all.

Vlad whispered something about bringing him with him to London, but Danny didn’t care.

He closed his eyes as the fatigue caught up with him and allowed himself to disappear into the black void that would whisk him away from his shame, pain and Vlad.


	13. Nichols show a softer side and Danny hides behind a smiling mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> Danny tried to run, he tried to fight, but...  
>  _“I wouldn’t test me if I were you, little badger, not when I hold the lives of your sister and friends in my palm.”_  
>  _That made Danny go cold. He starred into those blood-red eyes and felt the weight of the severely promises in them. Danny shook his head halfhearted._  
>  _“You wouldn’t – “_  
>  _“Oh, rather the contrary, my boy, I can assure you that I would. You have already experienced the capability of my employee Skulker. . I only need to make one call to arrange something similar for the dear Mr. Foley and Miss. Manson.”_  
>  _“That is, if he doesn’t find them to plain a prey and just kill them for the sake of the skin. He has a rather large collection of those, I can tell you. Oh, and as for our sweet, sweet Jasmine…”_  
>  _Vlad smiled wicked and extended the moment way longer that it should be legal, “you must understand that her husband’s future relies on me alone, Daniel. Dean Thornwood might be my shipping partner in a corporation equal to my own, but a single phone call to one of his rivals and an offering of a partnership is all it will take to crush the Thornwoods to dust.”_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!!!
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

The cold weather of late winter Seattle hit Nichols like a hammer and he lifted the collar of his coat to get some shielding from the harsh wind.

The light of the police station’s name placed a blue hue on the street and as cheesy as it seemed it, it colored Nichols outside the same as his inside.

He was feeling rather blue.

Nichols ignored a group of party people slinging down the sidewalk and focused on his main goal. The hour had stroked far past midnight, meaning he would have to find a 24/7 establishments to do his shopping.

His feet seemed to know the way and he followed the promising neon light of a little dirty Convenience Store at the street corner. The night was still young and he found that he wasn’t the only one out for late night purchase and had made this small place his choice.

An elderly male was talking with the clerk behind the small counter and Nichols guessed them to be from the same middle east origins, since they talked in a rapid unknown language and shared the same tone of skin.

Nichols turned his eyes from the two elders to the shop’s selection of alcohol and tried to remember if he had cash or card on him.

He trusted that Danny would stay at the interrogation room, or at least at the station – he wasn’t a prisoner after all. If he needed to use the bathroom Nichols wasn’t gonna be the one to keep him in a chair.

He had been considering and focused enough to give Miller in the other interrogation room a heads up on the situation and asked if he needed anything. Miller seemed to be more than happy to take a break from his suspect to talk with Nichols and had even kept on the old cop to make some smalltalk.

Nichols didn’t tell him much about Danny, other than that he was okay, while Miller was pretty much growing tired of his case. The 5,6-muscle nightmare handcuffed inside, had been nothing but trouble and wouldn’t talk until he got a lawyer.

Nichols could only pat his back in sympathy and promised to bring back the Danishes the man wanted. Nichols had found the beer he on a shelf and was going for the counter’s display of sweets, when his trained eye caught sight of a disturbance.

The clerk and his friends was still occupied and didn’t pay much attention to Nichols or the young teenage girl in the process of shoplifting.

Nichols acted as nothing and went to the desk. He nodded polite to the two of them and the old customer moved for him with a wrinkled smile in return. They continued to talk while the clerk scanned Nichols’ sixpack of beer and stuffed a paper bag with the cake of his choice.

Nichols took a look at the spy mirror above them and found that the girl had started to stuff her bag now that her baggy coat was full. Nichols made his way out of the store with his purchases under an arm and waited patiently in the shadow behind the next building.

The girl finally walked out the small store and made her way down the sidewalk. Nichols grabbed her as she passed and showed her the badge before she could scream up about stranger danger.

“I saw you shoplifting,” he grunted and was replied with a scowl of piercings and heavy makeup.

Nichols looked her over and sighed heavily. She couldn’t be a day over sixteen, despite the slutty outfit.

“How old are you?” he asked instead and she send him an angry glance.

“I don’t fuck cops,” she drawled and now it was Nichols turn to roll his eyes. _Jesus Christ_ , was that really the authority he represented?

He stepped out of the shadows and pulled her along to stand in the light of a lamppost, creating a scene less shady. She protested weakly as he opened her bag and looked away with angry eyes as he rummaged through her spoils.

The girl seemed to have a sweet tooth. Candy bars and other sweets laid side by side with cold products, as milk, meat and bread. Nichols began to understand and his suspicion was proved right when he searched her coat pockets and found a cheap toy inside.

The girl still wasn’t looking at him and Nichols shook his head.

“Is it a sibling or your own child?”

That made her look at him and a mix of shame and contempt colored her girly features.

“Mine,” she finally said and Nichols could easily guess the story behind.

Violent stepfather or boyfriend, maybe even father. Violent alcoholic or weakling who turned a blind eye, while she got herself a bun in the oven. Lonely mother with a small child and shitty job – if any. Shoplifting to support an even shittier household.

“Is there someone to help you?”

“Why do you fucking care!?” she sneered and pulled her arm from his grip, “pigs like you just wanna put people like me in a ditch and my baby into the lousy system. You don’t wanna help me – you want me off your sidewalk! Don’t pretend anything else!”

She punched his broad chest and stared him down (well up in this case) with all the loathing she could muster.

Nichols knew police officer who would have taken her in for this. Assaulting a cop was enough to arrest anyone, but Nichols wasn’t really the type to drag young skinny girls down the streets in the name of justice and to be fair, he had one hell of a story to return to.

She stared at him suspiciously as he pulled out his wallet and searched for the little piece of paper he needed. He found what he was looking for, smoothed out some of the worst wrinkles and handed it to the girl. She looked at it with distrust and Nichols couldn’t blame her.

“It’s the number and address of a AYM program. It’s a house of teen mothers without a home and people who helps them through it. Its free and since I have been there, I can tell you it’s an alright place. It’s not luxury, but it isn’t shitty either.”

She took it after some hesitation and read it with a frown. Nichols guessed that was enough for him and picked up his shopping before walking away.

She turned after him, “you’re not going to arrest me?”

He sent her a tired look, “I don’t feel like it tonight. Tell the house leader I said hey.”

Nichols didn’t turn back after that and continued his lonely walk down to the station. He knew the chances of that girl actually taking his advice was slim, but at least he felt like he had done something right for once

On a normal day, he would just have arrested her inside the store, but this wasn’t a normal day per say. Danny’s story still laid heavy on him, but the cold air had helped a bit. He didn’t feel as dreadful and tired as before.

But still. This kid was going to give him nightmares, he was sure of it.

Hopefully the story would take a better turn from thereof. Danny was here after all. There hadn’t been any Vlad Masters or sound-alike alias to pick him up.

The man might be an immortal, but if that arrogant son of a bitch showed his face, Nichols wasn’t going to greet him with a smile.

He met Miller in the small kitchen and handed him the paper bag, before continuing to the interrogation room. He sighed in relief as he was greeted by the sight of Danny’s back inside. The immortal half-ghost turned around in his seat and grinned at the sight of the beer.

“Needed something stronger for the rest of my ghost story?”

“I’m going to need a therapist after this,” Nichols replied drily and unbuttoned a beer for them both. He handed Danny one and patted his back before returning to his seat.

Danny send him a curious look, “something tells me you feel sorry for me.”

“What Vlad did to you needs more than a couple of beers and pats on the back from an old cop, Danny. What you’ve been through is evil.”

Danny ran a finger around the rim of his beer in thought, “you think Vlad was an evil man?”

“Off course,” Nichols scoffed, surprised Danny could even ask, “its people like Vlad that makes this world a shitty place to live in.”

Danny evaded his eyes, bite the inside of his cheek and then looked up with an unreadable look.

“You’re a cop. You must have seen some fucked up shit in your time, seen some people do crazy things and stuff. Why do you think they do what they do? Commit crimes like murder, rape, and thievery… What is your bid, young man?”

Nichols wasn’t exactly fond of the sudden “young man” thing, but since Danny was a little over hundred years, he guessed he could let the late-teen-looking-ancient crack some jokes at his expense.

The old cop grunted, “honestly? I believe most humans are just lost, old man.”

Danny nodded like that was what he had expected him to say, “maybe, but for my part? I have lived a little over a human life and somehow…it all seems to come down to the same thing. Why people hurt others and act out of violence and desperation…”

Danny suddenly smiled, “all they want is to be loved. And it seems that most of the time, love makes you do things, most of them harmful when their feelings aren’t returned. Kill those who stand in the way…do horrible things out of frustration or rejection. Hurt other because of past traumas, that could have been stopped if only someone had reached them a loving hand in time. Most love stories don’t end well, but I guess love is an essential part of human behavior…”

Danny turned the green class-ring on his finger and looked up at Nichols with honest eyes, “Vlad just wanted to be loved. He was afraid of being alone.”

“That doesn’t excuse him for hurting you like that,” Nichols scowled.

“Off course not,” Danny scoffed, like Nichols just had said something utterly obvious, “what Vlad did to me was – and still is unforgivable. But the most important thing isn’t whenever I would take revenge or hurt him back. The most important thing…is that I have come to forgive him anyway. Hating Vlad and devoting my life to loathing him would have been useless. But healing? That’s the only way a hurt soul can move on. Becoming happy again is more important than holding a grudge, Nichols. Obsessions never helped anyone.”

Nichols grunted. The kid was right, frustrating as it sounded.

“Maybe, but since there isn’t a Vladimir Masters breathing down your neck at the moment, my guess is that something happened between the two of you? When did you escape?”

Danny took a large sip of his beer and leaned back into the metal chair with hands folded behind his head.

“I was twenty when our paths parted. With the heavy threats of killing my friends and ruin my sister, I didn’t have much of a choice but to dancing to the tune of his flute. At first, I took every opportunity to defy him, every chance to be difficult and show him my hatred for him. Make him suffer like I did. He punished me by beating me for smaller things – that didn’t do me much, I was used to take punches from a ghost or two. But when I defied him on a more serious cause and crossed the line…he would take me on the nearest surface. And not like the first time, oh no – he would literally hurt me and ignore my pleasure in favor of his own. It became harder and harder to stay strong after that. He slowly changed me. Molded me.”

Nichols felt the nausea return and tried to block out the pictures that created. Danny on the other hand, was talking like his own history of torture and humiliation was just as inconsequential a topic as the weather.

That was the things about Danny that scared the old police officer the most – his light humor about Vlad’s molesting.

The easiness in how he described it. Like it held no meaning to him. It made Nichols wonder just how much pain and suffering a human could take before pain stopped having a meaning to them at all.

Maybe that was why humans wasn’t supposed to be immortal. If we stopped feeling pain, we wouldn’t really be human anymore.

Danny reached for the forgotten wallet on the center of the table and started to search in it for something. Nichols waited patiently for the next wonder of the little time machine to unfold and to his surprise, he was handed a second photography.

It was in vague colors and brown from age and use. It was an old newspaper cutting from a paper launching itself on the top as the ‘Daily mail’ with big gothic letters in bold. A little note about Spanish flue vaccination cures stood next to the headline; **_‘The Stock Market Has No Limits! Buy! Buy! Buy! Experts says’_**.

The article was accompanied by the grand picture of an aristocratic looking man with dark eye and a perfect smile at some grand evening. There were people drinking and smiling wide in the background, but what drew Nichols’ brown eyes was the young man next to the older gentleman.

A hand was placed around the dark-haired youth’s shoulder and if Nichols hadn’t been aware of the nature of Vlad Masters, he would have taken the hand as friendly, not possessive.

The young man on the picture held a strong resembles to the one sitting before him, but where his Danny had a somewhat childish glint in his eye and was emotionally collected, this Danny Fenton seemed almost dead.

The light eyes with the dark shadows around them starred into the camera and seemed as blank and empty as a dirty mirror. No spark of life behind them or smile in the corner of the soft lips.

The pose was straight and his person well-kept, but other than that the person was absolutely hollowed out.

Nichols had to take a second to remind himself that the broken man on the picture was the same as the living one before him. Meaning Danny had gotten life and happiness back somehow. He had moved on from the ghost beside Vlad Masters.

“You look like shit,” Nichols grunted to try and lighten the heavy atmosphere.

Danny grinned genially, “not my best angle, I admit, but the paparazzi do what they want. I was pretty tired to that day.”

Nichols could only imagine why, “was it at a party?”

Danny nodded, “the annual New Year’s Eve party at the Masters castle. Vlad liked me to socializing with the grand layer of the English social cake and show of his money on grand gatherings. He liked showing me of too, I think – as a son of course. He was still set on me being his successor even though I was immortal like him.”

“And you had stopped fighting him at that point?”

Danny chuckled darkly, “not really. I had given up for a long time I tell you. He had broken me a little, changed piece by piece and reshaped me to his likening. I lost a lot of thing in the time I spent with Vlad. After three months, I lost all hope of escaping. After five months, I lost the will to fight him. After a year, I lost my accent in favor of an American one. And after two years…I couldn’t recall my father’s face anymore and I stop pretending it all would end one day. And with that, I had become the partner Vlad had desired at last.”

Nichols gave him back the fragile picture, “how did you get back the will to leave him?”

Danny made a movement of his fingers over the table, like he was playing piano.

He recalled that early evening like it was yesterday. He had been practicing by the piano, playing a piece and singing along in a higher note. Suddenly his vocal cords had cracked and left Danny in a mild state of shock.

It hadn’t matter how many times he’d tried singing it again. He hadn’t been able to reach the high note. Danny remember with a light smile, how he had been sitting frozen by the piano and just wished to die.

He had been crying to, crying over the loss of his voice, the lies he had to write to his sister and the absence of his friends. The things he had lost and the things he would never get back.

The change of his voice had just been the drop that made the dam finally broke.

“It was the day my voice went into puberty and that changed…a lot of thing. For ones, it made it clear to me that I wouldn’t stay an adolescent forever like Vlad had predicted. I would change, I would grow, maybe even grow up. It made me realize that I had lost my youth to this golden cage Vlad had destined for me. And now he would take my adulthood to. That thought made me afraid, but most of all angry. And anger is a powerful force in the hands of those that have nothing left to love.”

   
 

 _Year 1920, The Masters estate, Yorkshire, England_

_**“And anger is a powerful force in the hands of those that have nothing left to love.”**_     

   
 

The cold water splashed against his face and Danny pressed his wet hands to his cheeks before straightened up to reach for the soft towel.

His own tired face stared back from the mirror hanging over the marble sink and reminded him of how thin he had become. Strong, but thin. Vlad had tried to make him eat more to put on some weight, but food didn’t seem to be the problem with Danny.

Danny was.

He dried his face and grabbed the sides of the sink to focus.

On the other side of the door he could hear the loud sound of the party down the grand hall. Danny had been able to sneak off with the excuse of needing to use the bathroom, but Vlad would start looking for him if he took too much time.

The man was like that after all.

Danny closed his eyes and tried to recall a time when he actually been alone like this. With Vlad Masters as your lord, there wasn’t much room for privacy and often Danny would have to accept that sleep was the only way for him to be free of the man’s company.

Like a vampire, he was sucking the life out of him, but there was more to it than just the thievery of his life-force. Danny recalled the time he, his mother and sister had lived with his mother’s sister Alicia.

He and Jazz had been spending most of their time with the old nanny of the mansion. An ancient grandma whose weak voice had enthralled them with her stories of banshees, the lantern men of Wicked Fen and the fair folk.

Danny had liked the stories of the fairies the most and listened for hours about their strange other world next to theirs. A dangerous land called ‘Arcadia’ and listened to the stories of how they would switch human infants with their own children.

If Danny placed enough imaginary into this nightmare that was his life, he could almost believe Vlad to be one of these faes.

As every English child knew, the feas was mystical creatures who used humans to grain powers and gained control of them for their own personal game and gains. They weren’t much different from humans, though.

Fairies wasn’t particular good or evil, they could have dreams and hopes of their own, and of course, they could be defeated if you were clever enough to discover their weakness.

Like the gods of Mount Olympus, feas used their immortal lives on playing games with humans and live out their dreams by hiding among the humans, for the sake of tricks and desire.

They would toy with their human preys and if they found them special enough, bring them back with them to their home in their enchanted land of strange dreams.

Danny’s life as Vlad’s partner was a little like that – an unrealistic dream, but not a dream of his. He was living in Vlad’s dream. In his spot of Acadia.

Danny was nothing more than a tool for Vlad, a rare acquisition, an object he has stolen from the human world and brought into his realm for the sake of his own amusement.

Mr. Masters lived in his own world of illusions and fortune, without any sense of reality. The man simply lived above everyone else and had only eyes for his own interests, without any morals or sense of other human’s feelings, or restrictions.

If Danny wanted to escape him, he would have to find the edge of this dream and break out if he dared. Finding Mr. Masters’ weakness and exclusion from the nightmare, this fairy has spun around him and break the spell.

Or die trying.

Danny groaned and hurried to turn around in time to reach the toilet. The grand feats went down the toilet with loud splashed and Danny didn’t stop until there was nothing but stomach acid left and heaved for air with swimming eyes.

He lifted the heavy head as someone knocked on the door and Danny forced himself to get it together.

“Yes?”

“Pardon, sir,” the butler asked worried through the door, “is there something you need assistance with?”

Danny flushed the toilet and walked to the sink to get some water, “no, everything I fine, I will return to the party in just a moment.”

The sound of the old man’s footsteps removed and Danny found his toothbrush to get the taste of vomit of out of his mouth.

He added a generous amount of _Max Melton’s remarkably efficacious tooth powder_ to the brush and welcomed the taste of mint and lime. He used the white pitcher of cold water to rinse the brush and stared down at the marble sink.

Despite the improvement, he could still taste Vlad on his tongue. Danny had continued the act as the man’s personal toy, to keep him from getting suspicious of Danny’s newfound will to escape and allowed the man to make him suck him off before the guests arrived.

“I don’t know how longer I can keep this up without falling apart,” he whispered tiredly.

 _Go out there and smile before he comes in and make you finish what he started,_ Danny’s reflection scowled and Danny rolled his eyes, “I have to stop talking to myself – where is Maddie when you need her?”

Said cat greeted him as he left the bathroom and returned to the corridor. The white Persian purred and Danny picked her up with a faint smile, not giving a damn about the white hairs that would surely come to cover his tuxedo.

Danny followed the sound of noise and loud chatter and greeted the guests that had come to relax in the left parlor. He received more than a couple of genially greeting in return and more than one sultry smile from the ladies.

Danny smiled in return and laughed it off, as he returned to the ballroom and nodded in false humility as one of the nearest gentlemen commented on him still being a bachelor.

It was late in the evening, meaning everyone had had more than what was decent to drink.

“Oh, Danny,” one of Vlad’s corporation partners greeted and pulled him to the side and into the little cluster of important men around him, “we were just speaking about you, son – how did you like the performance of _Don Giovanni_ in London west end?”

Danny stroke Maddie to calm himself. Vlad had forced him to go, even though Danny hated the theatre, “it was delightful, sir. Both me and Vlad was pleased to see this performance had moved from portraying Don Juan as a rebel and returned to his original story as a womanizer.”

That made all the men laugh and one of the maids offered him champagne on a plate.

Danny nodded to the elder gentleman, “we thank for the tickets again, that was very thoughtful of you, Mr. Dennis.”

“Actually, Danny,” Mr. Dennis said, pulling him aside from the other guests with a gesture of discretion, “my wife has asked me to help her and my daughter make her debut tonight and I couldn’t help but ask myself ‘what gentleman could I possible ask to lead my sweet little Anna-Bell into her first official waltz?”

Danny followed his eyes and found a rather skittish girl in the center of a group of older women.

The girl was dressed up like she was going to walk the carpet of the queen’s ballroom and sipped her champagne with nervous glances to the young men walking among the guests.

Danny sighed on the inside and handed the man a grand smile along with the cat.

“It would be an honor, sir.”

Mrs. Dennis spotted Danny before her daughter as Danny sauntered across the ballroom. To his left, the orchestra was making ready to the next waltz and it was the given moment for all the pairs of the night to line up for a dance.

“Oh, Danny,” Mrs. Dennis greeted with eager and straighten her dress to make a better impression to the step-son of her husband’s rich company partner, “what a wonderful party. You must thank your father for inviting us to such a marvelous gathering. Have you met my daughter?”

Anna-bell had almost choked on her champagne when Danny had presented himself and she evaded shyly her eyes, “Mr. Masters, I-I’m happy to make your acquaintance.”

“Please, Miss. Dennis, Mr. Masters is my step-father, I would prefer Danny, if you would be so kind,” he said and kissed her gloved hand. Mrs. Dennis cooed on her daughter’s behalf and the little debutant blushed by his courtesy.

“My, isn’t it Vladimir’s son?” one of the ladies behind the Dennis interrupted and moved into their circle with an ingratiatingly smile, “such a lovely party your father is hosting. I’m Mrs. Olson, perhaps you have met my daughter, Olivia?”

A more confident girl closer to Danny’s age was brought forward and she send Danny a smile that spook volumes of confidence, “Danny Masters, wasn’t it? Happy meet you.”

Danny had experienced this kind of behavior before and wasn’t surprised when a third-party in form of a Mrs. McKenly moved in to show her daughter off to Danny as well.

Mrs. Dennis and Olson send the woman eyes that could kill and fought a tactfully nonphysical fight of dominance, for the rights of Danny’s next dance and possible hand future.

Danny pitied them. Like Vlad would ever allow anyone to claim Danny’s hand in marriage.

He smiled to the three girls while their mothers bickered and found it strangely if not deeply bizarrely, that the three girls reminded him of his old boarding school crushes.

The one resembling Paulina; Olivia Olsen – what a stupid name – acted as if she was hot from the crowded ring of people and showed off some of her cleavage to Danny, as she pretended to tidy her dress and wave herself.

Mrs. McKenly’s daughter just stared at him wither big empty eyes and scratched her blond hair with nothing better to do. Danny named her “Star” in his head, this girl looked just as blond and air-headed.

Olivia’s shameless tactics had not gone past Anna-Bell and her mouth became a hard line. Her black hair and violet eyes made him think of a girl he once had loved and he took her hand as the music started.

“I’m afraid I can’t stay, dear ladies, I have promised to accompany Miss. Dennis into her first dance,” he said with a thick layer of insincere regret and led Anna-Bell into the dance-floor and the ring of pairs moving to the tones of a simple waltz.

Danny took it easy on the poor girl and turned his feet intangible after she stepped on his foot two times.

“You didn’t have to lie for my sake,” the girl suddenly said as they were halfway through the number.

Danny caught a glimpse of the grinning Mr. Dennis, who lifted a glass as a silent thank you to Danny and lifted one of Maddie’s paws to wave at him. Danny nodded in return to the man and twirled the girl back into the center of pairs.

“Maybe not,” Danny said and felt her feet phase through his toes, “but I was going to ask you before the ladies showed up and honestly…I hate getting jumped by pretentious mothers like that. Makes me feel like a piece of meat in the lion’s Den.”

Anna-Bell giggled and relaxed more now that she hadn’t stepped on Danny for a while.

“Still, that was very kind of you to ask me, when you could have asked any of those girls. I guess it’s true when people say you’re one the last true-born gentlemen in London.”

“Not for long.”

“What?” she asked and Danny snapped back from his plans of escaping.

“Nothing, must be the champagne – makes me a little dizzy.”

“Oh, yes,” she agreed, eager to keep up the smalltalk and please him, “I have only had one glass and I’m already a little queasy…uhm…”

Danny smiled as Anna- Bell tried to hide her shame from speaking so charmless and blushed even harder when she almost tripped. She might had reminded Danny a bit of Samantha Manson, but boy was this girl a heaven to difference.

Danny imagined Sam in Anna-Bells place and could almost hear her telling him to stop leading her around, like he was the one to tell her what to do and that he better try keeping his pants up this time.

The little warmth the picture had provoked in him died just as fast again, like a smothered flame. After he had stopped writing to both her and Tucker on Vlad’s orders, the letters had become fewer and fewer, until they had finally stopped coming at all.

The last letter from Sam had been hinting her anger and not as worried as her last letters. Apparently, they believed him to have abandoned them, forgot about them in favor of Vlad and his training. In favor of being with his own kind.

Danny had tried to write to them in secret, but Vlad had gotten his hands on the letters every time and punished Danny until he stopped altogether. Sam’s anger and Tucker’s silence had felt like a punishment in itself.

It might be Vlad’s words in his ears, but Danny had come to believe as well that maybe the man was right. It was better to let them go than hold onto people he would outage and only cause harm with his company.

By now they had both left Caspár Academy and moved on with their lives. It was better this way.

Now he only had to worry about his sister’s safety and stay with Vlad for her sake. The second child was already on the way and kept his sister busy, but happy.

Danny had seen her from time to time, when Vlad allowed it, but never alone and never long enough for him to find a way to warn her. Now that she had children to take care of, Danny’s wish to defy Vlad had died out even more.

If Vlad ruined his sister, she would be on the street with her children and Danny couldn’t allow that.

But he could stay here anymore. He just…couldn’t.

The dance was over before he had even realized it and an impatient line of mothers waited for him to ask their daughter to dance. They had been civil enough to make a line, but Danny suspected that there had been some verbal fighting, if not threats in the process.

After five dances and the unending exposure to high-pitched girly giggles, Danny decided he had been tortured enough for one night.

If he had to endure one more eyelash-battering and marriage-talking girl, he would end up doing something harsh and he decided to leave a duplicate in his place to deal with all the girls and their ambitious mothers.

Danny phased out into the garden and turned back to a visible human after he made sure no one was around. He exhaled with great relief and sat down on one of the cold stone steps to cool off a bit.

He groaned silently as the sound of rattling pearls and moving skirts appeared behind him and turned around to find a woman leaning against one of the terrace posts.

Danny was glad to find that this woman wasn’t looking at him or paying him any attention, busy smoking and keeping to her own business.

Danny didn’t know her, but was pretty sure he would have, had he meet her before.

She was clearly not an English woman, that’s for sure. Unlike the other ladies inside, her hairstyle was a blond mess of short curly hair with dark heavy theatrical makeup. So unlike the neatly curled bobs and modest makeup most women around Danny preferred.

Even the woman’s dress was far more venture and brighter than any attire he had ever seen on a British female.

There was no doubt. She was an American.

The woman caught him staring and waved her cigarette at him.

“Do you have any fire, sugar?”

Danny felt a light blush color his cheeks by her flirty tone and stood up to assist her. To his embarrassment, he remembered that he didn’t exactly had any light on him and tried to think his way out of it.

“Nothing?” she asked provocative in a heavy accent and smiled wryly with the dark lips.

“Uhm…what about a magic-trick?” he offered and she lifted a thin dark eyebrow as he took of his white glove and held forth his finger.

She just chuckled as his finger produced a little green light and she leaned in to ignite her cigarette. The controlled ecto-ray did its work and she inhaled with a calming purr and blew the smoke into the night.

“I once saw a street performer do something alike in Brooklyn,” she said and admired Danny’s form openly, “I think he was a part of some gothic circus or something.”

“What brings you to England,” Danny asked curiously, actually wanting to know how the states were doing without him.

“Marriage,” she drawled with a tired sigh, a sound that could easily tell the entire story of a boring relationship, “ma husband has some business with this Masters person and decided I needed to go with him. I can’t wait to go back, it’s like no one in this place have ever heard of jazz.”

Danny had heard about the style and the outrage it apparently provoked in the states and rest of the world. From what Danny had heard it was worst I Chicago, where the connection between jazz and cheap booze had been born.

Causing the crime and serious drinking rates to skyrocket.

“There you are! I have been looking for you everywhere, Barbra.”

Both Danny and the mystery woman turned around to face an elderly man whose extra pounds threatened to pop the buttons of his tuxedo. Barbra rolled her eyes and continued to smoke as he got up to them.

“I just went out to get some free air, the only free thing around here apparently,” she replied and waved at Danny, “the kid just showed me a magic-trick. You remember that circus back in Brooklyn? What was is called – Gothica?”

The American was going to sweep her away, but then he gave Danny an extra glance and stopped dead on, “wait a minute, are you Master’s kid? Vlad’s step-son?”

“That’s me,” Danny replied and yelped as the big man pulled him into a manly hug and planted a heavy arm around his shoulders.

“I knew it! Vlad told me you would be here. When I caught wind of the cheesehead getting a son under his polished nails, I didn’t believe it!”

Danny reminded himself to use the nickname for later when he was bound to be alone with Vlad and followed along, as the brash man lead him to a group of couches and snapped his fingers loudly at one of the servants to bring them something do drink.

“So what’s your name, sonny?” the man asked and pressed a glass into Danny’s hands as they seated.

Barbra decided to lay on her couches rather than sit with crossed legs like a lady and received some long glances from the around standing men and fuming looks from their wives.

“Daniel, but call me Danny,” he replied and the man blew a huff of smoke from the cigar he had pulled from his chest pocket.

“Danny, huh? Well you can call me Charlie and that’s ma wife Barbra, you’ve met.”

Barbra blinked to him, “call me Bobby, all the fellas do.”

Danny nodded a little confused and took a large sip of his champagne as the man continued to talk and his wife flirted with him with coy eyes. Danny snapped back to focus on the babbling man as he pulled Danny closer.

“– you see, I didn’t understand why Vlad would move his office to England all of a sudden, such a hurry, I tell you. But now I understand a little better, found himself a little nice family here. A shame with your mother though. Heard she was a beautiful woman.”

“Thanks…I guess.”

“No problem, Danny-boy, but the thing is, it has gotten awful boring in the states without him and I miss having him around in the club. I didn’t have any hopes of making him come back, until I heard he had become a loner again and started bringing a son into his corporation. Have you ever been to the states, Danny? Lots of beautiful women and fast cars I’ll tell you.”

The man chuckled and Barbra rolled her eyes, clearly finding him annoying in an endearing way.

“Yes, I uhm, went to boarding school there,” Danny replied and Charlie had his glass refilled.

“Fantastic, then you wouldn’t have any problems moving back, would you?”

Danny lowed his glass and stared at the man in surprise. Moving to America?

The happy memories of Sam and Tucker flickered to life in his mind and a little vague hope began to form in his heart.

“I uhm...no, I would love that – in fact, why don’t you ask Vlad yourself?” Danny replied and a plan began to form in his head, “I’m sure that if you told him it would improve his business he would go. America is the future, right?”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Charlie grinned and patted Danny’s back with a strength that would have broken his shoulder, had he not been a halfa, “and speaking of the dairy king – Vladdy! Over here!”

Vlad turned his head in their direction and raised his eyebrows by the sight of the them.

Danny guessed they had to look a little out of place, with Barbra almost showing of her upper thighs and Charlie pressing a flustered Danny to his chest with a cigar in his mouth giving off smoke like a chimney.

“Daniel, I see you have met Mr. and Mrs. King,” Vlad greeted with a hint of amusement below his normal superior tone, “now, Charlie, I hope for your own sake you haven’t filled the boy with any lies about me.”

“Well, I was getting to the part about your scandalous knitting hobby, but as he’s living with you, I guess Danny here would know about that already,” Charlie chuckled challenging and Danny had to admire the man.

Not many talked back to Vlad like that.

“You knit?” Danny asked with a raised eyebrow.

Vlad chuckled and sat down to place an arm around Danny’s shoulder, squished it warningly.

Danny acted as if it wasn’t hurting him and smiled to hid his unease. If he didn’t find a way to make up for his joking on the man’s expense, Vlad would probably punish him after the guest left.

“Uhm, we were just taking about you, _dad_ ,” Danny said, laying as much affection as possible in the last part to play the perfect son Vlad had required him be to in public, “Mr. King just told me your abilities is dearly missed back in the states. A huge loss for the marked back when you left for England.”

Feeding Vlad’s ego and flattering him in public was always an easy way of being forgiven and Vlad smirked. The hand on Danny’s shoulder loosened to a more tolerable point.

“My, My, King, is this visit really only to beg me to come back?” Vlad mused and the other man barked a spotting laughter.

“You don’t know the half of it, Vladdy. One half of the stock marked need you to thin out the competition and the other half is fearing the consequences should you return.”

“Hmm, it’s tempting to take back the territory, but I’m very comfortable as I am now. Very comfortable indeed. All I need is here.”

Danny held his straight face as the arm around his shoulder moved to his back and went lower. Vlad’s hand couldn’t be seen from where Charlie or Barbra sat and was all for Danny alone. Danny sipped his glass of champagne to mask his changing breath.

“Aw, c’me one, Vladimir. Where is the taste for blood? The ruling juggernaut everyone loved and despised? The master of wall street?” Charlie said, pointed his cigar to Danny rather rudely, almost stubbing it in his lap, “if you’re staying because of Danny here, just bring the boy with you, for Christ sake! He’s a grown boy, let him get a taste of the city-life back there and get out of this uptight heap. Let the young man breath some fine American air!”

“Your son Elliot could show him New York, all the good places,” Barbra added from her lax pose on the couch, inspecting her nails ever so bored.

“That’s a great idea, honey,” Charlie grinned and scouted into the ballroom at the other end of the parlor, “my boy and Danny here is the same age – go fetch him, Barbra.”

The woman sighed, but rose and walked away to fetch her husband’s son from another marriage. Vlad was offered a cigar and took it with slow elegance, as he cut the end and ignited it with a match one of the servants handed him.

Danny calmed down a little by the sight.

A smoking Vlad was a relaxed Vlad.

“He’s a great kid,” Charlie assured Danny hearty, “while you and he get to know each other, me and Vlad could discuss your shift of location, it’s all working out itself, amiright, Vlad?”

Vlad sighed even heavier than Barbra, which was impressive in itself, since Barbra seemed to be built of exaggeration and Danny breathed a little easier as the burning hand left his rear.

Danny rose as Barbra returned with a young man, around Danny’s age with white jelled hair. Despite not being related, he had the same bored-out-of-his-mind expression as Barbra and had tucked his hands into the pockets of his tuxedo slacks.

“You called?” Elliot asked in a rude tone and Charlie waved him closer.

“Elliot meet my former partner, Vlad Masters. He’s the host, the man I told you about – go play pool with his son Danny and get to know each other while we talk.”

“Pool?” Danny asked confused.

“Billiard, forth room on your left” Vlad explained and waved them away.

Danny lead the way to the billiard room with a sulking Elliot in tail.

Danny didn’t pay the other much mind, to cooked up on what this could mean for him. If they moved to the states…they would make distance to Jazz.

If Vlad truly believed Danny was tame he wouldn’t need to leave a ghost to hang over Jazz, should Danny defy him. Danny already knew Vlad had called Skulker back now that Danny had lost connection to Sam and Tucker, making Jazz his last chain to Vlad.

Moving would mean Vlad would be forced to shut down his portal. He wouldn’t be able to send any ghosts after Danny, giving him the perfect opportunity to run and get the head start he needed.

It was one in a million chance. The only one he would ever get.

Danny just had to rely on Charlie King to convince him. If that wasn’t enough…well, then Danny would have to persuade him. He knew Vlad. He knew how to push his buttons.

He hoped.


	14. Danny has a hard time figure out what he wants. Emotions are a bitch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys  
> I'm, going on a last minute larp this week and wont be able to post next friday - but I guess its fine, chapter 14 starts at the precise end of 13 and they will work best if you read them right after one another  
> hope you enjoy it and leave a comment if you like
> 
> * * *

_Year 1920, The Masters estate, Yorkshire, England_

Danny felt the need to run a hand through his hair, but that would probably ruin the jelled back tresses and make Vlad annoyed.

Elliot snapped a finger at one of the servants by the wall and Danny watch with growing unease as the numbered ball was gathered and formed into a triangle with the rack for the purpose. Elliot grabbed a cue stick and walked around the green billiard table with familiar tranquility.

“My guess is that you have played this before?” Danny asked, tried to break the ice in a friendly manner. Elliot sent him a glance that made no mistake about his meaning of Danny.

“Off course, who hasn’t? So, you’re adopted or something?”

Danny had mixed feeling about this guy.

On one hand, his rude tone reminded him of the more freely speaking he had meet in the states and made him want to forget about the tiresome etiquette he was forced to keep up on a daily basis – but on the other hand, this guy was proving to be a real jerk.

Danny decided to ease the atmosphere a bit by being the polite one, “yes-yeah, Vlad adopted me and my sister when we were little. He and my mother were old friends.”

Elliot snorted by that and positioned his cue to make the first move and hit the white ball. Making the other balls roll around. Danny had observed others play the game, but never tried himself or had the urge to learn it.

He made an effort to get the rules of the game from what Elliot was doing and copied him to make his turn.

“The full colored ones are mine and you’re not supposed to get black 8 in hole before the end of the game” Eliot sighed as if he was playing with a dense child and Danny blinked confused.

He took an extra look at the balls and realized that half of them was half colored while the rest was completely in color. He bowed down with embarrassment specking his cheeks and went for the half-colored 9 ball.

It was a bad hit and Danny’s whitehaired opponents smirked, “wow you’re really are a wet blanked, have you never touched a cue before?”

“Some of us have better things to do,” Danny defended and watched Elliot get three balls down the table’s pockets.

One of the servants handed Danny a little cube of chalk and he polished the end of his stick as he had seen Elliot do it. Why did people like this game again?

“Sure, England really is the party,” Elliot replied with a voice dripping of sarcasm and ended his turns, “I can’t wait to get back to West Egg, the season has just begun and all the whoopee is going on without me.”

“Must be a real pain to be here,” Danny replied in an even more quipped tone, “is it fashion or something to wear an all-white tuxedo back in the states? I almost took you for a servant.”

Elliot looked up and something other than boredom came into his green eyes. It could almost be taken for challenging.

“Huh, I almost took you for a Mr. Grundy there – looks like you have some teeth after all,” Elliot mused as Danny made his turn, getting one ball down, “say, don’t you get tired of this blend place? If that stepfather or yours brings you to the sates, I know a place or two that would make you wide eyed.”

“Sounds good,” Danny retorted, knowing that he and Elliot would never meet again is his plan succeeded.

“Yeah, but don’t get to use to it – If my father gets Masters to move back, he’s going to get a leash on your old man. The Kings pretty much rules the marked over there, no place for any real competition.”

“You don’t know Vlad,” Danny just sighed, knowing just what the man was capable of and pitying Mr. King for even thinking about poking the halfa. He would surely regret it and end up as the one in a leash.

Elliot sent Danny a look he couldn’t decipher and made his turn. Danny could only watch as Elliot made the perfect hit one after another and was left with black 8. It went down the pocket easily and Elliot smiled assertively with a mutter.

“That was almost as easy as the time I beat that Foley kid.”

Danny froze, his ghost hearing peaking up, “Foley…as in Tucker Foley?”

Elliot just shrugged uninterested, “do you know the loser of something?”

Danny felt a pang of anger, but tried to hide it, “we went to school together. Him and Sam Manson, we were best friends and I took Sam to her first dance at the school galla.”

“Huh,” Elliot said and waved for the servant to redo the game, “Sam never mentioned you, though. Maybe you weren’t as good friends as you think. Up for a second game?”

Danny had to control his mix feeling of anger and hope, “you know Sam to?”

“Yeah, sure, she’s my fiancé,” Elliot replied offhandedly, not giving it any interest and made ready to make his turn as the winner of the last round, “a little annoying with all her revolution and woman talk, but she’ll get easier once we get married.”

The cue stick hit the white cue ball as it should, but instead of hitting the cluster of balls, it flew right over them, hit the side of the table and ricocheted to slam into Elliot’s shoulder.

“What the –!?” Elliot squeaked and gripped his shoulder in a mix of shock and anger.

“My turn,” Danny said calmly and grabbed the white ball from the floor before a servant could. Danny hit it as he should and watch as five of the balls went straight to the tables pockets.

Elliot gaped in outrage and stared from the table to Danny and back again, “but?”

“I’ll give you my next turn, since you were injured,” Danny offered like a gentleman and smiled charmingly, “unless its only your pride that’s wounded?”

Elliot’s neck flushed in a hissy red and he scowled as he positioned to make his move. The white ball hit and separated the balls as it should, but an invisible force made them all stop right before the pockets and stay on the table.

No hits.

Elliot’s eyes looked like they would pop out of their sockets and Danny hid his grin as he made his turn. Another perfect score of five balls. Four left.

Before Elliot could even begin to grasp what had happened, Danny had won and he took the liberty to smirk at the baffled guy.

“How about a best out of three?”

Danny knew using an invisible duplicate was low, but he had too much fun to care about good sportsmanship and enjoyed watching the jerk get all frustrated and angry as he couldn’t get a single hit.

Danny’s effortless winning and show off, soon drew a couple of guest to the table and before Danny knew, a larger crowd of spectators surrounded them.

“You’re a dirty liar, Masters,” Elliot scowled as Danny made ready for his turn.

“Now, that’s uncalled for, Mr. King, I never said I didn’t know how to play, just that I had better things to do,” Danny smiled humble and used the cue behind his back without even looking.

The crowd applauded and laughed as Danny made a perfect hit and his duplicate sent the balls straight to the pockets.

Elliot’s scowl deepened and he moved close to Danny for only them to hear, “maybe not, but I’ll say you’re cheating somehow and if I’ve taken a moment to listen to any of the crap my father babbles, it’s probably the only thing to expect from a kid raised by Vlad Masters.”

Danny scoffed, not really offended.

“Well, aren’t we a sore loser all of a sudden? And even if I did cheat, you’ll never find out,” Danny whispered challenging and made Elliot’s eyes go narrow.

“Not as sore as you, I would guess. I’ve heard Vlad’s a real sadist, a monster. I bet he’s beating you when he gets the chance and keep you in the basement or something.”

Danny frowned, “I don’t know how your father treats you, but Vlad would never keep me in a basement or beat me like that, what are you even trying to prove?”

Danny watched the rest of the guest out of the corner of his eye.

Defending Vlad wasn’t as much as a way to keep his own secrets, as to keep the man’s. Danny could only imagine what would happen if people found out about him and Vlad – and if Danny spilled anything now, Vlad would surely kill him and at best beat him to a bloody pulp.

Danny couldn’t risk Vlad getting wind of him talking bad about him, his chances to escape and keep Vlad believing he was loyal depended on it.

“Mr. Masters have been nothing but good to me, he didn’t have to take me or my sister in, but he did and I am thankful for his kindness,” Danny scowled and made sure to be the mature one of him and Elliot.

It didn’t hurt that the Americans was an eyesore to the rest of the party either and Danny could easily tell that many of the guest found Elliot’s accusations of Vlad highly inappropriate.

Elliot didn’t seem to care.

“I’ve heard he’s a real nutcase to, believing in ghosts and crazy talk,” the guy continued, “wasn’t your mother that Fenton woman who believed herself to be a real scientist? I guess there’s a reason you precious step-father never married that tomato.”

“My mother and stepfather were friends, Elliot,” Danny stated drily, not letting this idiot get to him when he knew the truth, “this sore loser tantrum is really unbecoming.”

“Ha! What’s unbecoming was your mother living like a mistress and bringing shame to her name. She must have been well-educated in the matters of seduction to get a man like Vlad Masters into her net.”

Danny felt the anger flare and had to control himself not to let his eyes glow, as he let out sneer, “I don’t know what gossip you listen to and I don’t have to stand here listen to what you believe and may think – Vlad took me and my family in because of his goodwill and heart. Helping my sick mother when no one else would and he has been nothing but a gentleman to her. He could have sent me and my sister away after her death, but he didn’t. Instead he adopted me, clothed me, feed me, loved me and gave me the best chance in life. You owe him some _respect._ ”

Danny didn’t know why, but hearing this little creep making accusations about his mother and Vlad had pushed some buttons in more ways than just the anger of having his mother’s honor put in vain.

He had no idea where the last had come from…it just rushed out of him like a faucet. Danny didn’t respect the man, but then why did he defend him?

The uncertainties took hold of his heart and made him take a mental step back.

Maybe it was…fear? That if someone saw Vlad for what he really was, took all the layers away and stripped him to the core for Danny to see, then Danny would be left with nothing? A part of him still believed the old Vlad to be down there somewhere.

The Vlad that had been good to him. The one Danny had trusted.

The Vlad before that Christmas morning.

If Danny didn’t hold on to that and defended it…then it would be lost forever and he would be forced to accept that his Vlad had been nothing but an illusion. That in the end, he couldn’t trust anyone.

Not even his own heart’s discernment.

Elliot suddenly smirked, “maybe you’re right, maybe I was wrong about your mother. The way you praise him just showed that people suspected the wrong Fenton. I guess that’s why you’re pathetically pinning after my fiancé. Trying to make yourself more of a man. Do you really believe she would ever look to your side? A cocksucker like you?”

Danny looked him dead in the eye, “I’m not the one using a woman to hide my insecurities here.”

Danny’s eyes turned green as the cue stick came swinging towards his face. But before he could stop it, a third-party had intervened and Elliot’s angry blush paled by the sight of the man who had caught the end of his cue in a tight grip.

Danny turned sober instantly by the sight of Vlad’s cold glare and Elliot looked like he wanted to hide, deep fear spread through his system by the man’s intense deadly stare.

“Elliot!” Mr. King scolded, angry and ashamed on behalf of his son, as he pushed through the muttering crowd and took the cue from Elliot’s hands, “I am so sorry, Vladimir, this is shocking. Apologize this instant, Elliot!”

“I believe it is Daniel your son owes an apology,” Vlad corrected, calm and collected as ever and stepped aside from the protecting position he had made in front of Danny.

Elliot was clearly still seething, but with both his father and Vlad’s eyes on him, as well as the rest of the guest, he soon lost his nerve and evaded his eyes.

“I apologize, that was very childish of me. Please forgive my actions.”

Danny was still a little off put from the sudden change of event and had to clear his throat to find his voice, “uhm, that’s’ alright, we both crossed the line I think.”

The rest of the evening turned out to be rather tense afterwards and the Kings was the first to leave.

Vlad was acting ever so calmly as Mr. King shook his hand outside and it was impossible for Danny to decipher whenever this had changed the chances of them moving to the states or not.

Danny stood in the door, as Vlad bid the last guest a farewell and goodnight, and watched as the last car left the large driveway and rounded the fountain. Danny looked around and swallowed as the servants went to do their clean up and left the entrance hall.

They were alone.

Danny felt anxiety take hold of him as Vlad walked back up the marble stairs to the front door and hurried to make his amends before the man could punish him.

“Vlad, I’m so sorry, I should have teased him like that and made a scene, I –!”

Vlad killed the rest of his speech in a sudden passionate kiss and pressed Danny to the wall. Danny overcame his surprise and melted into the kiss as Vlad liked it. Placed his arms around the man’s neck as he was trained.

He felt the old pull and swell of energy as they changed scenery and groaned a bit as he hit the bed and now had Vlad above him.

No punishment then, he concluded.

“I’ll take that as I didn’t ruin the party then?” Danny asked as Vlad gave him a second to breath. Vlad just smiled and kissed him more tenderly.

“How could you even come to such silly conclusions, my love?” Vlad cooed and left burning kisses down his collarbone, making Danny groan and writher.

Danny winced as Vlad phased off his first layer of clothes along with footwear and bit his lip, “Vlad...could we...talk?”

“Aren’t we already?” Vlad chuckled and laid claim on the younger male’s body, with bruising lips and demanding hands.

Like he always did.

“No-not-urgn-really,” Danny replied in sweet pain as Vlad had moved his heated lips to his chest and started sucking on his nipple.

Vlad didn’t give him an answer, but continued to worship the body beneath him and pressed a hand to the back of Danny head, bringing their mouths closer and stealing the breath of him. Holding him like he was his dearest property.

Danny didn’t have any illusions about being anything other than that. A prized possession. A beloved object. A slave plaited in gold. Vlad’s pet.

Danny knew better than to resist and spread his legs for Vlad to position himself between them, closing every gap between them and engulf Danny in his heated torture.

Danny cringed as his slacks and underwear was removed. Leaving him naked for the man to behold as he took a second to admire him. Danny always felt ashamed by moments like these and had to fight the urge to cover himself up or look away.

Vlad didn’t like that, got angry when he tried hiding from him and Danny kept his eyes and body open like a good boy.

“You are so beautiful,” Vlad whispered with something Danny could almost believe to be caring. Believing that there was more to this than just ownership and dominance.

That Vlad actually loved him.

Danny whimpered as Vlad nipped his lower lip and gripped the man’s shoulders for comfort, as Vlad removed his own cloths and settled on him with a satisfied exhale.

Danny stopped being sore for the years of habituation and moaned as Vlad began to prepare him with deep demanding trusts of his four fingers.

The smell of ecoplasma let him know that Vlad had brought the green blood to his fingertips to use as a natural lube and tried not to cringe in disgust.

Vlad whispered sweet nothings into his ear as he turned Danny around to lie on his stomach and prepped his hips up with a pillow.

A year ago, Danny would still be crying in shame, but now he just stared into the pillow he was digging his blunt nails into and bit into the soft material as Vlad’s pushed in.

The positioned made Vlad get even deeper and Danny groaned by the heavy feeling of his full length inside him and cried out as the man began to move. Taking his precious time and keeping Danny close with a tight grip in his hip.

Danny’s insides twisted as Vlad went down to grab his member and Danny buried his face into the pillow, hitching from the man’s forceful trusts and agatizing slow rubbing of his length.

The pace sent Danny into a heated daze and he moaned loudly, encouraged by Vlad’s snaking words in his ear and hands pushing all the right buttons. Danny couldn’t build up the strength to hate himself right now and just let it go.

Waited for it to be over and Vlad to get what he wanted.

“That’s it, Daniel, just let go,” Vlad whispered and bit his earlobe, licking his neck and leaving hot brands of iron, sending impulses right to his groin.

His firm muscles keeping him pinned so close and ever so close to his heath and burning core, filling the bedroom with the smell of sex and sweat.

Danny cried out as he came hard and gritted his teeth as Vlad kept penetrate his overstimulate prostate, slamming into Danny and finally filling him with a groan.

Danny whined pathetic as Vlad rode out the orgasm and ran a hand through his sweaty hair and down his sleek stomach. Danny shuttered as Vlad licked his fingers for Danny’s semen and closed his eyes to lay boneless on the pillow.

Vlad kept his length inside Danny as he moved them to lay on the side and pressed Danny close to him. Danny kept his eyes closed as he collected his racing breath and tried to think himself elsewhere.

Vlad suddenly pulled out of him and kissed his jaw, “come.”

Danny didn’t protest as the man lifted him into his arms and carried him to the bathroom. Danny sat patiently on the edge of the large bathtub as Vlad prepared the water and filled the bathroom with steam.

Danny winced as he was lowered into the hot water and allowed Vlad to settle down behind him, making him lean against his firm chest.

Danny was leaned forward as Vlad reached for the soap and washcloth, and closed his eyes while Vlad poured water into his hair and began to massage the fresh smelling soap into his scalp.

He felt a cigarette get pressed to his lips and he held it with his lip as Vlad ignited it with a dark flame from his fingertip. Danny handed him it back to him as soon as the fire had caught and Vlad inhaled slowly and sent a huff of smoke to the celling of the bathroom.

The silence settled and only the sound of the water and their slow breathing filled the empty space. Danny had closed his eyes as Vlad rinsed his hair and didn’t see the man’s smile.

“I must say I was flattered by your defense of my honor. It was quite passionate.”

Danny decided not to open his eyes and just hummed. He didn’t feel like elaborating his words, actually he wanted to forget.

Vlad blew a huff of smoke and leaned back, still massaged Danny’s head with his free hand.

“Despite his foolish son, Mr. King’s offer was quite tempting.”

Danny tried not to stiff or show any interest other than the expected. This was it.

“Tempting enough to move there?” Danny asked, keeping his voice lax and only mildly interested to keep the man from sensing his eager.

“Perhaps,” Vlad mumbled, adding oil to Danny’s hair after he stubbed his cigarette, “I do miss the social gathering there, the advanced living and most of all the rush of the competition. Something could seem I have come to rest on my laurels and take my success for granted here on the isles.”

“Then maybe _we_ , should go there,” Danny added, putting pressure on the “we” to keep Vlad interested.

Not that Danny didn’t believe the man wouldn’t bring him along wherever he went, but it was important to intensify to the man that Danny expected to come along with him. Show his devoted loyalty and expectations of them being an item in the matter.

Vlad’s fingers became gentler and Danny keep a straight face as the man dragged out the silence.

“Maybe we should,” Vlad finally voiced, his hands running from Danny head to his neck and collarbone, giving him a deep massage, “I have a lot of places to show you and new sight to visit. How do you feel about Wisconsin?”

“Heard it’s cold,” Danny shrugged, keeping his mannerism reluctant, “I’ve only been to the east coast and isn’t New York the place to be for powerful men?”

Danny earned a flattered chuckle for that and got an idea.

Vlad watched him as Danny turned around and placed himself in the man’s lap instead. Took the washcloth from his hands. Filling it with soap and began to wash the man’s chest with long strokes.

Danny acted as if he didn’t feel the man watching him with intensity and kept his voice reluctant, “we could go to Broadway together and sail along the coast. Or walk down your private beach, if you like. Play polo in the garden and swim in the pool of your grand new estate. Do anything you like…”

Vlad’s breath had become heavier and slower as Danny’s hand had started to go lower for every circle. Danny leaned closer with what he hoped was a devoting smile and soon reached the end of Vlad’s stomach.

“That sounds lovely,” Vlad admitted and pulled Danny a little closer with a hand behind his head. Pulled him down to kiss him.

Danny evaded his mouth by nipping at Vlad’s chin instead, following the line of his facial hair and continued up the jaw until he reached the man’s ear and sucked on the earlobe.

Vlad hummed deeply in content and turned his head for Danny to get more access. Danny felt how Vlad began to move along with Danny’s hand around his length and Danny kept it slow to keep the man in check. Couldn’t believe this was actually working.

That Vlad would give him this much power over him.

“It would be good for us to try new things,” Danny continued and added a little more speed to his strokes, feeling Vlad grow even harder in his hand, “maybe a bigger place for us to be ourselves. Just you and me…no more interruptions.”

Vlad’s eyes had become red again and Danny bit his lip as one of Vlad’s hand ended up on Danny’s lower back.

“You would have to leave your sister,” Vlad suddenly said and almost broke Danny pace. Danny continued like he hadn’t just felt a pang of pain in his chest and continued to smile lazy.

Vlad was right, he would have to leave Jazz.

When he escaped, he could never see her again. If Vlad couldn’t find or contact him, he couldn’t threat him with Jazz’s life anymore. She would be free without ever knowing and he would have that as his only consolation. He would have to let her go.

He loved her too much.

“She could visit if she liked, but she has her own life to care about,” Danny assured as if not really interested, hoping Vlad would take the bait, “I will have to let go of her sooner or later, right? You’re the one I’m going to spend eternity with, not her.”

Danny stopped a yelp from leaving his mouth, as Vlad pulled him down to straddling his lap and ravished his mouth with a pleased growl. Danny eased into it to keep up the act and positioned himself to sink down on the man’s erection.

This position was new to them both. Vlad usually tend to keep Danny beneath him, either taking him on the back or on his knees if he was extra. Danny had gotten use to be the one taking the trusts and just be responding with sounds and touch.

Being the one to offering himself and move in pace with the other to give himself the needed friction. Never the one to take control. Never the one to lead.

Now he was sitting on Vlad’s lap and had Vlad as the one waiting on him, Danny felt a short sting of performance fright. Danny wasn’t completely sure how to continue from this and tried ease into it as Vlad grabbed his hips with a smirk.

Danny tried to hide his discomfort of the sudden power over the man and began to ride him out of impulse. That seemed to be a start and Danny ran experimental his hands over Vlad’s chest and digged his hands into the firm muscles.

Vlad groaned in bliss and started to lift him a bit. Danny caught on to what the man wanted and use his thighs to lift a bit and slam back down. Vlad hit the spot inside him and Danny threw his head back with a moan.

Vlad’s hands lifted him again and Danny did his to keep up the friction, as Vlad helped him bounce on his member. Danny became hard again and leaned in to support himself on Vlad’s chest with heaving breath.

Vlad rolled his hips, sending sparks to Danny’s brain and made him cry out like a whore.

Vlad speeded up and Danny groaned as his thighs began to burn from the effort, making Vlad take over and press Danny to his chest and slammed back up into him. Danny clung to the man like his life depended on it and arched his back as Vlad grabbed his shoulders to get deeper and faster.

Danny was still a bit sore from their round on the bed and wailed in a mix of pain and pleasure, as Vlad rolled his hips and made his length rotate inside of him.

Vlad growled pleased by the sound and slammed hard into him several times, before Danny came on his chest. He groaned as the man came inside of him, filled his entrance with his hot seeds and pulled Danny down to relax his head on his shoulder.

Danny found himself gaze into the deep nothing as he rested his chin on Vlad’s shoulder, feeling the man coming down against him.

Giving in and giving himself up to Vlad like this had been easy. To easy.

Danny could almost tell himself that they were lovers, that there was something to this that could be considered real. In the lonely night, Danny had more than once found himself clinging to Vlad and take comfort in his voice and strong embrace.

Longed for his warmth and felt a sense of happiness when Vlad praised him or did small caring efforts, like stroking his hair or embrace him without it being sexually. Even though it often ended like that.

It reminded him of the old Vlad, the caring Vlad, the one that had given him a home as a halfa.

Danny now knew that his Vlad was a lie, a simple mask this man had worn to hid his true intentions. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. Even though Danny had been the one to shame.

He had known the real Vlad before the caring one took his place, had to remind himself he had hated the man before he learned of his halfa identity. He had only himself to blame for his naive trust in the hopes that the man could have changed.

It made Danny’s stomach turn and he hid his face in Vlad’s long hair. Cursed the confusion his heart and mind couldn’t come to cross with. Hated that a part of him had found it easier to give in and offer his body to Vlad. Take comfort in his arms and stop fighting him.

To give up on his hate.

Danny knew these moment wouldn’t last for long.

Sooner or later he would do something to anger or annoy the man and the tables would turn on him. Showing the true face of the man again and leave Danny shattered until Vlad decided to pick him back up with sweet words and loving caresses.

Making Danny doubt himself all over again and believe that maybe – maybe things would get better this time. That he had been wrong about the man until now.

If truth was to be told…Danny was tired.

He had lost the will to fight and the will to stand up to the man a long time ago. It was a simple to show compassion for the man and do his part of this wrecked relationship, if it had ever been one to begin with. Easy to “let go” as Vlad always told him.

It made Vlad happy when he responded to his touch and stopped fighting. Made him happy when Danny smiled and took orders without a second thought. A happy Vlad was a nonviolent Vlad.

The only Vlad Danny could live with.

But that was the thing. Danny couldn’t live like this anymore. Not with Vlad. Not with himself. He had to leave him in order to live again or else…

Danny would lose himself. Descend into insanity and vanish into the dark smothering hell that was Vlad’s love. The only Love Vlad seemed to know.

Danny had to escape.

He had to try.

He had to.


	15. Danny and Vlad make plans, but not for the same course.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previous in the fic
> 
> Danny has gathered the courage to make a decision.  
>  _Danny couldn’t live like this anymore. Not with Vlad. Not with himself. He had to leave him in order to live again or else…_  
>  _Danny would lose himself. Descend into insanity and vanish into the dark smothering hell that was Vlad’s love. The only Love Vlad seemed to know._  
>  _Danny had to escape._  
>  _He had to try._  
>  _He had to._
> 
> But that means he will have to leave Jazz forever  
>  _Jazz noted his distressed demeanor and took his hand, “the war will end, Danny and you will be able to go where you want and do as you please, but I’ll just like you to know that I will miss you dearly, little brother. I know I can be kind of hard on you, but you know I think you're great, right?”_  
>  _Jazz smiled down at him and he returned her affection with a wry smile. She hugged him and he buried his face into her black dress._  
>  _“Thanks, Jazz.”_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have returned!  
> Hope the wait wasn't to long - here's another chapter from me to you - shit is about to go down yo!!!!  
> I have been invited to go on a spontaneous trip to the woods friday (tomorrow) ak. the land of no wifi - meaning you will get the chapter today  
> In this chapter Danny sings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWaHjPUQHxM  
> and they dance to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM  
> Hope you enjoy, comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

Nichols had buried his face in his hands and removed them with an exhausted groan of despair.

“Please tell me you escaped.”

“You want me to stop and skip to the end?” Danny asked, cradling his chin in his hand with a requesting expression, “leave out the details and tell you that everything ended in a happy ever after? Is that what you want?”

“No…” the cop admitted. He knew damn well that happy endings didn’t exist. Life wasn’t made like that and that was the reason people clung to movies and fairytale. The made you forget about your own misery in exchange for a moment of happiness.

Fake or not.

“No, I don’t want you to stop. I…want to know.”

Danny hummed, “that’s what I thought, this would be a pretty lousy interrogation otherwise, don’t ya think?”

“Just get on with it, but it better gets less graphic or I’m going to scream,” Nichols scowled annoyed. He wanted details of course, but not _that_ many details. _Jesus Christ_. 

Danny just smirked and folded his hands on the table.

“Alright. It goes like this: Vlad decided that he wanted to move as soon as possible and began to make the preparation. Moving his office, redirect his money, that kinda things. I spend the time with Jazz on the other hand. She was…sad that we had decided to move, but also kind of understanding, which didn’t make it any better. She told me it would be good for me to go back to the states and get into the business with Vlad. To see Sam and Tucker again. She had no idea I had lost all connections to them.”

Danny’s mouth stretched to a thin line and he exhaled slowly, “it would be my last time with her and I needed it to fill the void that would follow when I let go of her forever. Vlad took it as a sign that I was ready to leave her behind and let go of the humans holding me back – and in a way, I was. For me to stay out of Vlad’s hands, I would have to let go of all things valuable to me and keep it that way. I kept up the loving act to ensure him he had nothing to fear for my part and slowly, he began to think me tame. That he had finally broken me completely.”

“And then he deactivated the portal?” Nichols asked.

“And then he deactivated the portal, yes. I watched as he closed down his lab and had it all packed into huge boxes of tree, ready to get shipped across the ocean. He told me that the new location would make his portal open up to a new place in the Ghost Zone to. It encouraged my plan of escape, since that meant it would take him even more time to send Skulker after me and give me more time to lay distance between us when I ran.”

Nichols scratched his stubs, he needed to shave, “where did you plan to go this time?”

“Maybe somewhere cold. Vlad knew I liked warmer places and I did until my powers began to evolve – but I’ll return to that later. The important thing was, that if Vlad expected me to go to the tropes, then I would go to the poles if necessary. Wait for my appearance to age and make me less recognizable to him…but as you can see…”

Danny gestured to himself with a sheepish grin, “I didn’t exactly age as I thought I would. I think I stopped ageing around my mid-twenties, maybe pre-thirties. The age of my most matured stage you could say.”

Nichols frowned confused, “but…why would you stop aging there? Vlad didn’t stop – I mean...”

He took the newspaper picture and looked Vlad Masters’ arrogant face over, “Vlad looks like a man in his forties and if this was twenty years after the portal accident, he would have to be forty something or maybe even in his fifties. I admit he ages well, but the man didn’t stop aging after the accident. How is it possible that you stopped?”

Danny offered him a wry smile and took the picture. Ran a thumb across it with unreadable eyes.

“Nice seeing your cop skills in action, I was starting to get worried there,” Danny chuckled and ignored the man’s annoyance, “okay, I admit I used to ask myself the same, but funny thing is, that if you look behind the white silver hair and the mature attire, you can’t actually start to sense the younger man behind. Vlad was twenty-one when he died halfway. Unlike me, he didn’t get the easy way out and his body struggled to accepted the change during the seven years he was in the hospital. Meaning he was twenty-seven when he finally adapted to the ghost DNA and perfected his basic powers. Just like me, Vlad’s body seemed to have its peak at the age of his pre-thirty, but the white hair just made him seem older. It didn’t hurt that he was a tall man with naturally matured features either. If you imagine him with the black hair he had before the accident, some of the years disappears.”

Nichols snatched back the little picture and ransacked it again, forced his imagination to come out and play.

Despite the bad quality and old camera deficiencies, Vlad’s appearance started to change into a much younger person if you placed a finger over his white hair and goatee. Without the white hair or light winkles, the man almost appeared twenty years younger.

Nichols rubbed his eyes tiredly.

Personally, he would have to meet the man to make a complete decision on the man’s appearing age and hoped it wouldn’t come to that. He trusted that Danny knew what he was talking about.

Nichols himself decided to stick with the impression he had gotten of Danny when he first stepped into the interrogation room.

He guessed the immortal’s aging had stopped around the mid-twenties and based it on the lose fact that the kid just didn’t seem to possess the thirty-thing around him. But Nichols could be mistaking, people aged differently.

Just look at this immortal mess – Danny would stay young and fresh long after Nichols was nothing but dust and a lost name in the line of other billions name to rest in the statistics and long forgotten books of birth.

That thought almost make him wanna curl into a tight ball and Nichols drowned it down with the rest of his second beer. Took a sip of the life he still had.

“Alright, the monster faked his age with fancy suits, haircare and snobbish talk – and you prepared to leave him. My guess is that it either went well or became a last second sprint.”

Danny scratched his neck with a thoughtful expression, “well to be fair, it was kindda both? I’m not sure, it all happened so fast…I guess you could say it turned into some kindda self-discovery. I learned a couple of new things about myself…and things I couldn’t look back on without doubting my own morals. In a way, he made he walk the road he had planned for me from the start. The one where I became more like him. He got that last laugh on my expense. He made me a murderer.”

   
 

 _Year 1920, The Masters estate, Yorkshire, England_

_**“He made me a murderer.”**_     

   
 

Danny ran the plan in his head over again.

The portal parts would be shipped in less than four hours and the car bringing them to the said ship would be ready to drive them to the train leading them to London in around an hour.

Leaving Danny with a very slim timespan, doing what he had dreaming of doing for three long years.

Escaping.

Danny had eaten breakfast with Vlad and acted excited on a reasonable level that would keep his capture in the dark, while one of Danny’s duplicates hid a secret suitcase in the garden with the money and attire he would need to make the long travel ahead of him.

He had wanted to leave a letter to Jazz and explain everything to her, but ended up leaving nothing.

If she knew…it would break her heart to learn his dark secret and what was worse – it would make her turn against Vlad and give him an excuse to hurt her even though he couldn’t use the pain to bend Danny.

Danny couldn’t risk her getting hurt because of his fragile heart and had decided that he would leave her life the same way he entered it. With silence.

He knew leaving a duplicate on the ship, while he ran would be risky. The further away you moved from a duplicate, the more difficult would it be to keep is substance and convincing.

Danny was able to make a great number of duplicates thanks to Vlad’s training, but making one strong and believable enough to trick Vlad would prove to be the ultimate test of Danny’s capability.

He had trained ever since the night of the party and put all his will into perfecting this one power. Vlad had commented on his tiredness and sloppiness during the day, but Danny had excused it with nerves for the coming travel.

If Vlad found it unlikely he didn’t show and Danny hoped for the love of God that the man hadn’t become suspicious. Not now.

Danny needed this chance.

Just this chance.

Danny felt the urge to send his duplicate down to check on the hidden suitcase again, but couldn’t risk it. If Vlad’s ghost-sense went off and Danny was in his human form, he would know something was up and investigate it.

Danny couldn’t have anything ruin this and held down his anxiety, he just had to trust that the suitcase was still in place.

While he was a wreck with a plastered smile on his face, Vlad was walking around the servants and making sure that all their needed belongings would be send to the ship in one piece.

Danny walked the empty halls like his shadow and watched as the home he for many years had loathed, then loved and then feared, was stripped of its essence.

The furniture had left marks on the floors, the built-in architecture pieces had been covered up, all windows closed up and the chandeliers had been covered in feather white sheets.

All gas light was smothered as the pipes were closed and the fire in the fireplaces was replaced with empty hallow squares of darkness.

Danny swallow silently as the only lasting home he had ever known became dark and empty, locked down until Vlad sold it and the many memories, beloved or hated was removed one by one.

He stared at the spot his piano had been resting for all those years and looked out the window to the rose garden. It occurred to him that he would never be able to watch this view again and that filled him with both relive and sorrow.

If he closed his eyes he could almost hear the last tone he had played at this exact spot.

   
 

_“Weep you no more, sad fountains;_  
_What need you flow so fast?_  
_Look how the snowy mountains_  
_Heav'n's sun doth gently waste._  
_But my sun's heav'nly eyes_  
_View not your weeping_  
_That now lies sleeping,_  
_Softly, softly, now softly lies sleeping.”_

_“Sleep is a reconciling,_  
_A rest that Peace begets._  
_Doth not the sun rise smiling_  
_When fair at e'en he sets_  
_Rest you then, rest, sad eyes,_  
_Melt not in weeping_  
_While she lies sleeping,_  
_Softly, softly, now softly lies sleeping.”_

   
 

Danny stopped as his voice couldn’t reach the high note and he rubbed his throat. He hadn’t touched the piano since the day his voice began to change and with time had left him with a lot deeper baritone.

Singing had been one of the things Danny had come to believe never would be taken from him, but it had seemed that what Vlad couldn’t deprive him of, time would.

And Danny wasn’t going to waste any more time.

He listened to the sound of Vlad discussing the moving matters with the servants and Danny came to realize a little too late the man had moved to go to the next room.

Danny snapped out of his melancholy and followed him hastily, not going to let the man out of side before it was time to make his disappearing trick.

If Vlad moved to far away from him, the man’s ghost-sense would pick up the invisible duplicate behind Danny and know something was off.

He found the man in the ballroom.

All the chandeliers had been covered up with sheets and lowered to the floor. The paintings removed and windows closed off. Without the glamor, furniture and expensive interior, the great room was just a long stretch of emptiness.

Just a huge room, now silent and without people to fill it. A radio played an old piece of classical music somewhere and Danny’s Italian leather shoes mixed with the sound. He found Vlad in the middle of it all.

Standing alone on the floor with his hands deep in his pockets. Standing with his back to him.

Danny stopped a bit from the man, suddenly consumed with the fear that Vlad knew about his plans and had lured him here to confront him. Take it all from him in this room of celebration and joy.

Vlad didn’t turn to face him, but spook idly, “I remember the day I bought this place. It was over the phone, long distance and so was the transfer of the money. I sent all the servants and needed interior in advance, wanted it to be ready when I went to London to get you. My little family. It’s ten years today.”

Danny swallowed, “really?”

Vlad turned to him with an unreadable expression, “’good evening, sir.’ That’s what you said the day we meet. No stutter, no fear. You just stood before me and stared into my eyes as the likes of an equal. What a boy.”

Vlad smiled and Danny looked away. He never knew what to do with himself when Vlad praised him this way. Was he supposed to be thankful?

The piece on the radio ended and the start of a waltz began. Vlad’s attention turned to the direction of the devise and Danny felt a shiver run down his spine. Both recognized the piece.

 _“Danse Macabre,_ ” Danny said and Vlad nodded.

“How fitting.”

Danny was going to ask, “how’s that?”, but Vlad moved up to him and made him mute the second he had taken his hand. Danny knew better than to refuse and let the man led in into a waltz.

quiet part shifted to a more hectic pace and Danny moved as he had been taught and followed Vlad’s movements to the best of his abilities. Moved in pace with the other and felt the steady beating of Vlad’s heart as they danced chest to chest.

“You seem tense, Daniel, something’s the matter?” Vlad asked him calmly and Danny swallowed, tried not to stumble as they danced around one of the chandeliers.

“It’s nothing just…I’m going to miss the castle I guess.”

Vlad hummed and Danny hoped he had dodged a bullet. Vlad’s voice had felt like distant thunder, a drumming in his chest making Danny’s skin lift with goosebumps and his own heart beat uncontrolled.

A distant danger, not close enough to hurt you, but close enough to make fear leave you awaiting.

Vlad couldn’t possible know – but how could he not?

Vlad always knew everything, was always one step ahead, always stronger, clever and meaner. He was perfect, he was deadly, he was Vlad Masters.

Danny Had to escape him.

The music ended and Danny thanked the gods and none at all. The way Vlad had looked at him like he wanted to let him in on a secret, made Danny’s nerves tangle in fear and he didn’t know for how much longer he could keep up the masquerade.

Vlad squeezed his shoulder in good manner and send the ballroom one last glance before he led Danny out of the room.

Danny followed by the man’s side like a well-trained puppy, as Vlad led them through the rooms one by one and they ended by the entrance hall. Danny decided this was it.

As soon as the driver made the signal to Vlad and Vlad would turn to get his coat, Danny and his invisible duplicate would switch place.

Danny had been wringing his brain to come up with a method to do the switch without Vlad’s ghost-sense warning him and finally found the solution to his problems.

Danny had insisted on Vlad teaching him one last time in the training room, as a last respect to the place and Vlad had accepted. After they had finished, Danny had left an invisible duplicate by his side and avoided Vlad’s suspicion.

Ghost-sense would warn you when a ghost entered your vicinity, not keeping your updated on the ghost activity while it stayed in it.

As long as Danny stayed near Vlad and didn’t move to far from him, Vlad wouldn’t detect their invisible third-party and Danny could leave without activating Vlad’s ghost-sense.

Danny picked up Maddie from one of the servants and petted her to hide how his hands was shaking. He put up a smile as Vlad walked to him and reached to scratch the cat behind the ear.

“We’re almost finished, do you have everything you need, my boy?”

_Everything I will ever need, Cheesehead._

“I’m ready,” Danny replied and covered up his distress and tiredness from ordering his duplicate around him, as the old housekeeper walked to them and presented a transportation box for the white Persian.

Danny helped the unwilling cat into the box and waved as she was carried to the car.

He was going to miss that cat, but at least Vlad liked her and wouldn’t kill her when he found out Danny had left him. The man was s cat person. They just worked that way.

Danny’s eyes snapped to the driver as he stepped into the hall and Vlad lifted a hand to show they had seen him. Danny turned to let one of the servants help him in his coat, when Vlad began to walk away.

“Ask him to wait with the car, I need to pick up a thing or two,” Vlad told Daisy and Danny almost lost his cool. A little voice in his head told him that Vlad knew, but Danny forced it down.

“Me to!” Danny hurried to say and ran up to Vlad’s side. If Vlad moved out of the span of his own ghost-sense Danny would be in trouble, “what do we need to pick up?”

Vlad placed a hand on his shoulder, not even question why he was coming along.

“Just a few things from the lab, it shouldn’t take much, dear,” Vlad hummed and lead them to the second door on the right at the second floor.

Danny followed him in and found the lab almost as empty as the rest of the house. The counters were cleared and covered up with sheets as well as the hole where the portal should be.

Danny followed the man as Vlad rummage through one of the cabins and smirked as he pulled out a bottle.

Danny wanted to scream, “you’re making us late for the train because of a bottle of wine?”

Vlad ignored his tone in favor of reading the handwritten label on the dark bottle, “this isn’t just a bottle of wine, my boy, this is the first bottle of deathblossoms and grapes I’ve ever made. It has been maturing for almost a decade now.”

Danny had a hard time keeping his impatience from showing as Vlad took the time to form a corkscrew with his ecto-energy construction and opened the bottle.

The aromatic smell reached Danny and despite everything, it made him calm down a bit with its aroma. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced before and he moved closer as Vlad found two glasses and filled them with the almost blood thick wine.

Danny looked from the man to the glass and took it. Vlad leaned to the counter and raised his glass in silent toast to Danny with a loving smile.

The young man’s worries vanished like dew in the sun. Vlad hadn’t found him out. He just wanted to have a last drink with him before they left.

Danny smiled in return and tasted the wine. It was sweet in a fresh almost breathtaking way. It reminded Danny of fresh cherries warmed in the sun and at the same time the honey drops he had enjoyed as a child.

The deathblossoms added a soft sweetness to it and warmed all the way down. Vlad rotated his glass with his eyed on the liquid and tilted his head a bit.

“Say Daniel…were you going to kill me or just run as soon as the car would start?”

Danny choked and stared at Vlad with widened eyes. The man was still smiling, the epitome of calmness and sat down his glass, while Danny’s mind went haywire. Completely blank.

“What? What do you, I wouldn’t –”

“Oh spare me, Daniel,” Vlad sighed and walked around the counter to near him.

Danny hurried to move away from the man.

“Wait! Vlad, you got it all wrong!” he protested desperately.

How did Vlad find out? How!?

Vlad smiled wickedly, “oh really? Then you won’t mind me doing this, now would you?”

Danny gasped as his invisible duplicate was blasted to kingdom come by Vlad’s ghost-blast and Danny backed to the wall in panic.

His voice almost cracking, “how did you - !?”

“Simple,” Vlad explained as he chased Danny in a maddening slow pace, “cats have a terrific sense of detecting hidden things. I saw Maddie turn her head to get petted by something behind you and honestly, my boy. Even I could tell something was underway.”

Danny tensed as he backed into a corner and the man caught up with him. Danny felt sweat run down his spine as Vlad slammed his hands against the wall behind Danny, cornering him completely.

“Do you take me for a fool, hmm? Little badger? Did you honestly believe that such a groundbreaking change in your normal pouting demeanor would go unnoticed by me?”

Vlad leaned in close to whisper with a jeering tone, “even though I must admit It was endearing watching you seducing me. You got quite a shameless side I can’t wait to explore. As for starter, I wouldn’t mind having you _riding_ me like that again.”

Danny slapped him.

He hadn’t even been aware of his own hand moving. He had just acted on impulse and now watched with bared teeth and soul crushing fear as Vlad slowly moved back with a vicious chuckled.

He only gave Danny second to fully realize his mistake, before the man backhanded him across his face and send him flying to the floor.

Danny ignored the pain of his cheekbone and turned ghost to phase through the floor, but Vlad was far faster and had him by the hair before he could do anything.

“Let go of me!” Danny screamed and kicked the halfa in the stomach, making him take a step back.

Plasmius growled warningly and Danny pulled as much power as possible to his palm, before he sent an ecto-blast at the man’s face. Vlad laughed hauntingly as he caught Danny blast with his absorption and redirection abilities, and send it directly back to Danny.

The young man duck-rolled out of the way and formed to ball of green ghost flame in his hands to throw after Vlad as Danny tried getting in on him. Vlad deflected them with his shields and Danny yelped as he put up a dome-shaped shield to protect himself.

Vlad shot after him with a fanged grin and Danny expanded the shield with a cry. Plamius’ red eyes widened as the repulsion ghost shield exploded and turned intangible in the last second.

The white sheets of the lab were turned to ashes and the nearest counters slammed against the walls, as the impact of the shield blinded the lab in white. Vlad turned back solid with a scowl and was meet with Danny ecto-strike square in the face.

Danny kept slamming his flaring fists into Vlad and was lucky enough to get in a kick, before Vlad locked his hand around his neck and pressed.

Danny trashed to get free and the last of his breath was slammed out of him as Vlad threw him down on the nearest counter. Danny wheezed and tried to cover his face as Vlad punched him again and again.

Danny got a second to collect his breath in time for Vlad to grab him with both his hands and send an electroshock through his body. Danny screamed in pain and felt the two rings form around his waist.

Vlad released him and Danny fell down to the floor, the two rings stopping halfway down his body and returning to his core. Danny’s relief of still being in ghost form was short lived as pink rope tightened around him and locked his arms to his body.

A new world of pain opened for Danny as Vlad grabbed his hair and started dragging him across the floor. Danny trashing and pleading for him to stop was wasted on Vlad and the man threw him down before his feet near the covered portal hole.

Danny groaned as a black boot was placed on his chest and inhaled as it began to press down.

“Nothing like a fight to get out the frustrations, now is it, love?”

Danny gasped for breath, “you… _bastard_ …”

“Don’t be vulgar, Daniel, it’s not very charming.”

Danny’s snarky reply was smothered as Vlad added more weight to the boot and Danny was sure his ribs would break. Plamius ran a hand through his black hair to make sure his two horns was intact and stared down on Danny with lidded red eyes.

He seemed almost…proud.

“I must say I’m both pleased and a little… _disappointed_ that killing me and secure no persecutors wasn’t on your list, my boy. I would have done so in your place.”

Danny stared up at him in outrage and drew a gulp of air as Vlad lifted his boot a bit, “you’re sick! You were _waiting_ for me to plan an escape!?”

“Well of course,” Vlad chuckled, like it was the most natural thing to do – which in a way it was now Danny thought about it, “couldn’t have that fiercely spirit of yours die out completely, now could we? I know you far too well, my boy. Just like me, you’re a fighter, has an unbreakable fire in you. Sooner or later it would ignite again and bring you back to me, show me just what you’re made of.”

Danny felt the wrath overtake his overwhelming dread, “I’m _nothing_ like you!”

“Now that’s where you go wrong, Daniel,” Vlad assured and returned the bone crushing weigh to Danny chest with a large vampire grin, “we’re more alike than even I could have imagined. Using your opponents' weaknesses against him? Sneak attack? Using your powers to get back at people you don't like? Throwing the first punch?”

Danny gasped painfully and scrunched his eyes together with barred teeth. Fighting to keep the darkens at bay.

“When…hav-ve..I…ever used…my…power…against other…than you!?”

Vlad snorted, “well, I’m aware the young Elliot King doesn’t make any great impression, but even you should be able to recall that little twerp. It feels good to use your powers on your enemies, doesn't it, Daniel? Using them to get your way in life."

“Please stop!” Danny heaved, not able to go intangible or escape as long as those ecto-ropes kept him in check, “you’re…kill-ling me!”

Vlad lifted his boot and ignored the gasping and choking halfa shaking on his floor.

“Well perhaps I've been a bit harsh. After all, I had no reason to suspect you of any deception... and now I do, little badger, you sure know how to keep the game going. Unfortunate I can’t let you go unpunished for this, have to stay true to my promises after all.”

“What!?” Danny hitched as he finally got up to sit and could only watch as Vlad turned a lever with a stern expression.

The thick sheet covering the hole of the portal, suddenly glowed with green and Danny could only stare in dread as a dark shadow appeared behind it and ripped down the fabric.

Skulker’s robotic grin meet Danny like a hammer to the guts and Vlad landed between them with a dark scowl.

The portal had never been shipped. It hadn’t been turned off.

Vlad had known from the start.

“Go to the Thornwood estate and kill the woman of the house as I have advised you,” Plasmius ordered solemnly, “bring back her head when you’ve finished.”

A world of horror engulfed Danny and his heart stopped beating altogether.

They were going to kill Jazz.

 _“NO!”_ Danny shouted and threw himself forward to get to Skulker, much to the ghost’s amusement.

Vlad kicked Danny back down and lifted the trashing halfa to eyes level with a deep scowl.

“You have only yourself to blame, boy. I warned you.”

“Please, Vlad! I’m begging you!” Danny cried and felt tears threatening to spill, “I’ll do anything! I’ll do anything you’ll ask of me! Just don’t kill my sister!”

“You had your chances, now it’s time you take responsibility of your actions,” Vlad scolded mercilessly and threw Danny back to the floor.

Danny saw before his eyes how Vlad turned his back to him and Skulker made a large green blade slide out of his arm before preparing to phase up the celling and out of the castle.

_It’s time you learn to show some responsibility._

_I know I can be kind of hard on you, but you know I think you're great, right?”_

“No,” Danny whimpered and felt the tears run down his cheeks, “no, no, _no_ , _NO_ , _**NOOOOOOOO!!!!!**_ ”

Vlad’s eyes widened as all the hairs on his body stood by Daniel’s haunting scream. He only had a second to behold the sight of green rings streaming from Danny’s mouth, before the impact of the soundwaves hit him like the power of a tsunami.

The ghostly wail sent Vlad crashing into the wall of the lab, while Skulker was hurled deep into the Ghost Zoon, hundreds, and hundreds of miles from the portal.

Said portal began to crack and its frame curl, as Danny’s wail increased and made the foundation of the lab open in long crevices.

Vlad lost consciousness and returned to human form, while Danny was pressed back as the waves of his wail escaped the walls of the lab and began to tear the very frame of the castle.

 

Danny woke with a gasp, coughed as his lungs was filled with dust.

He felt the pressure of large rocks and boulders press down on him and fought to breath. It took far longer than it should for his brain to remember to go intangible and he started to drift upwards.

His eyes passing the layers of crushed beams, collapsed walls and scattered bricks. Danny heaved in the fresh night air like he was drowning and took a second to rest in the middle of the chaos.

He wiped the dirt from his eyes and looked around disorientated. Destruction as far as the eye could see surrounded him in the night and in his confusion, Danny could only ask himself if he had survived an earthquake.

Then it all returned to him.

The lab.

The fight.

The portal.

Skulker.

Vlad.

Danny pressed a shaking hand to his mouth and felt a panic attack build up. He had done this…he and that…wail…

Danny looked around again, searching for any sign of life in the land of ruins and small scattered flames. The only sound was papers drifting in the wind and the tress moving at the edge of the fallen castle.

The pounding of blood in his ears and the ringing sound that wouldn’t stop running through his head. Danny rose on shaking legs like a newborn do and began to walk through the ruin.

He moved past a broken beam and almost fell as he discovered an arm sticking out from under it. He hurried to knell down and grabbed the hand, “hold on! I get you out I…”

Danny stopped dead in track as the arm got free of the brick and fell into his lap. There was no person at the other end. It was just a cold arm.

Danny hurried back in horror and turned around to throw up. He started down into his own vomit and soon felt the tears stream down his nose and into the mess.

Danny sobbed quietly, the realization of what he had done weighted down on him.

He had done this. He had ruined the castle. He had killed the servants.

Daisy

Nelson

Mr. McHells

Mr. Dawns

Vlad

The last made Danny gasp and sit up. The wind rushing through his hair and ragged cloths. Danny listened to the silence and closed his tired eyes.

He first opened them when the sound of sirens and blinking lights appeared in the dark and called him back to reality. The fear of what would happen if he was found like this grabbed his heart like a cold hand and Danny shoot into the air like a shooting star.

In his delusion and trauma, Danny never took the second to considering giving himself over to the help and neighbors, who had slowly started to gather at the scene of the destruction.

It didn’t occur to him that they could have taken him back to his sister and helped him, rather than blaming him for the deaths and mass destruction of the castle.

It didn’t occur to him before he was far away from the place and deep into the empty waste world of endless dark waters, that maybe, just maybe…there still existed people that wanted to help him.

Danny didn’t stop for days, didn’t rest, or toke a moment to reflect on his situation. The only thing he could think of was escape. Escape the humans, escape the ruins, and just run, run, run, run.

And so, he did.

He was three days into his senseless flight before he phased right into the hold of a lonely fisher cutter on the sea and passed out.


	16. Danny’s on the run. From more than just the dead.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> When Danny was just seventeen, he made a promise  
>  _Danny spat the blood in his face._  
>  _“I swear when I get my powers back –”_  
>  _“Then what?” Vlad asked challenging, drying his face of the little specks of blood, “you plan on killing me, my boy, is that it? Win a bloody, but unrealistic battle against me and go back to your sister and little friends? Hmmm? Are you sure you’re ready to face them with my blood on your hands?”_  
>  _Danny blinked, hadn’t thought that far. Killing Vlad…Danny wasn’t even sure he wanted what, but then he remembered what Vlad had done to him in the chapel and decided, that yes. He would kill Vlad. The man seemed to read all this in his eyes and placed a possessive hand above Danny’s heart._  
>  _“You might not believe it, but that only makes us more alike. I to wouldn’t be afraid to take another man’s life – but taking the life of the only person in this world that could ever understand you, my boy? The only person to ever stay by your side as your family and loved ones die of age?”_  
>  _Danny held his gaze with a determined scowl._  
>  _“Yes,” Danny hissed._
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey pompous pep people! :D  
> I'm back with another chapter and an even more traumatized Danny than ever  
> Danny is about to grow up and face a life without Vlad and his cage again - lets see how he's doing!  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1920, a boat near Godthab, Greenland_

A light kick woke Danny from the deep sleep.

He tiredly opened his eyes, couldn’t remember last time he had been this tired and sat up, only to be meet by the sight of four enormous bearded men. Danny felt his tired head wake up on the second.

“Uhmm, hey?”

The most savage looking of the four giants barked something to the others and then turned back to Danny.

“Hvað ert þú að gera á bátnum mínum?” (what are you doing on my boat?)

Danny just rose his brows. Was that man asking him something or just growling? The man repeated himself a little more biting and Danny could only shake his head to show his confusion.

He took a second to look around and realized he was in some sort of boat below deck. The strong stench of fish hit him a second later and then the odor of the four sailors.

At least Danny believed them to be sailor. Or maybe Vikings, they just needed the helmets to finish the picture.

“Eh, are we near a harbor or something?” Danny asked and stood between the two stacks of rope he had been laying on.

The four men murmured something to one another, sending Danny side-glances and now that he looked down himself, he had to admit he probably made a sketchy first impression.

The three-piece-suit was in a horrible condition of burned spots, specs of dirt and more than one place torn to pieces. All of it covered in cakes of dirt and possible salt. Danny looked right out of the war. If it hadn’t ended years ago, that is.

Danny smelled his armpit as the sailors turned around to discuss what he believed was him.

“Urgh, I smell like death!”

“We thought you to be, stranger. You Englishman, yes?”

Danny looked up to be met with a tanned sailor with the most crimson beard Danny had ever witnessed. The man reminded him of a bear, but his eyes was surprisingly friendly and shone with a curious hazel hue.

Danny wetted his dry lips. Man, he was thirsty.

“Yeah, I’m English – wait, you thought I was dead?”

The man scratched his beard, “you been sleeping for four day, my friend. We not wake you no matter what we do – Einar said you fell down from the sky like bird, but he is a drunk to.”

Danny scratched his neck, feeling sore and all, but the disorientation of where and when he was made it all faint a bit and keep him on track. He remembered flying for what felt like days, surrounded by water and with nowhere to land.

A light had drawn him to it like a moth to a flame and then…nothing.

“I see, listen…uhmm…”

“Mikael,” the man helped and Danny nodded a little awkward.

Danny had to take a moment to form the foreigner pronouns of the name in his head. _Me-kael._

“Okay, Mikael, I’m Danny by the way – can you tell me where I am? I know it’s a boat, but…you know,” Danny said lamely, still dizzy and searching for the words like a drunk idiot.

Mikael turned around with a, “hent lite vatten!” (*get some water) before turning back to Danny and gestured for him to sit down with him.

Danny did as he was told – better stay on the good side with this man – and watched as Mikael-sounding-like-an-e took of one of his many layers of jackets and handed it to Danny.

“If you Englishman, you far off from home, yes. We are fishing near Godthab, Greenland coast – going to make big money of the next catch.”

Danny blinked. Greenland? Really?

Danny’s former plans of going somewhere cold returned like a switch and Danny felt his breathing become caught in his throat, as the things related to the plans of running away came rambling down.

It all lead back to the same person.

Vlad.

He had killed Vlad.

Danny was shaken back to the present as Mikael had grabbed him and Danny’s teeth chattered in his mouth as the big man shook him, “he-y, He-ey!”

The man let go of him and sent him a worried frown, “you stopped breathing, what with you?”

 _Everything._ “I’m just…the things leading me here,” Danny replied slowly, feeling the urge to go back to sleep again and never wake up, “things I did…”

Something changed in the man’s eyes and he suddenly clapped Danny shoulder with the power of an overfriendly bear. Danny almost slammed his head against the floor planks.

“I see, you a stray man! Running from you troubles,” Mikael concluded with a sly wink to Danny, “is it a girl? All men of sea has a love on land to worry of, but will always return to the sea – you in love with sea to?”

“What?” Danny asked puzzled, but the train-wreck of a conversation was interrupted as the man that had first talked to Danny showed up with water. Danny guzzled in all down eagerly while the two men talked and soon bickered.

Danny watched them talk in each dialect and possible language. Wondered just how they could understand each other.

The man with the salt and pepper beard – Danny named him “salty” – pointed to Danny with narrow eyes and growled something with a raised finger before he left and went back up on deck. Danny looked back to Mikael, who was making a grimace.

“The captain say he does not want freeloaders on his ship, says you have to work while being here or go back the way you came – you know how to catch fish, Danny?”

Danny didn’t, but he soon learned.

   
 

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

“He taught me how to cook to, turned out he was the ‘chef’ on the boat. It was mostly fish and potatoes, but when we went to land he would buy fresh stuff and teach me how to make dishes from his homeland. Fishermen are actually pretty cool dudes when you get to know them.”

Nichols just hummed, not really knowing what else to say. He had been right when he had taken Danny for dangerous. The kid had murdered an entire castle.

With his lungs.

On accident.

 _Jesus fucking Christ and all his fat angels in heaven, give me strength!_ Nichols decided he needed a long vacation when this was over and emptied his fourth beer.

“I believe you,” Nichols sighed and folded his hands interrogative, “and then you stayed on the boat? Outlived the life as a sailor and traveled the world – is that it?”

“Meh,” Danny bleated, “I stayed on the boat for a couple of months and sailed with them to places like Greenland, Norway and Iceland. I didn’t have any money and stealing for a living wasn’t really my style, superhero and all that. It was easier to stick with these guys and lean stuff. It took the edge of things and gave me some time to think things through. They gave me my space as long as I did my part of the job and they actually came to respect me when I lifted a fishing net by myself. I wasn’t aware that it normally took three men to lift one and hadn’t thought about hiding my ghost strength.”

Danny chuckled, “they called me Dan-stærke after that. Mikael said it was a word play on ‘the strong one’, I left the boat after he returned to Sweden to live with his family. Captain Salty sailed me to a harbor in Canada and handed me the pay I had earned from my work on his ship. With that and the little money Mikael had given me, I returned to mainland and began to look for work. The possibilities grew the further south I went and you can say I made my way down the east coast. Apparently, there’s always work to get if you’re a white good-looking guy with manners.”

Danny opened his wallet and handed Nichols a white tooth on a black cord.

“This was a gift from the islandic crew and Mikael. Said it was a narwhale tooth and would bring me luck.”

Nichols turned the little blunt piece of white bone in his hand and felt the black leather cord under his rough fingers. The tooth had yellowed a bit from age.

“From a castle slave to an American hobo, that’s something,” Nichols mused with a grunt and handed back the narwhale tooth to Danny.<7p>

Danny opened the wallet, but then seemed to have second thoughts and put in on instead. He adjusted the black cord around his neck and let the tooth rest on his collarbone.

Nichols watched him with some skepticism, “but, if you knew Vlad was dead, then why didn’t you just return to your sister? Go home again?”

Danny bite his lip, looking away.

“I…I thought about it, but I…I just couldn’t get myself to go back, you know? Being on the run made me feel like I was having some kinda plan, a purpose, I guess. Going back felt like taking a step back and some part of me knew that if I returned to Jazz, I would have to explain myself and I…”

Danny shook his head pitifully, “I wasn’t ready for that. I wasn’t ready to tell my story and come clean. I’ve told people bits and parts of my life, but never the entire truth. In fact…”

Danny looked up to look him in the eye with a hard gaze, “you’re the first person to ever hear the truth. And I can’t stop wondering if that’s a good or bad thing.”

Nichols didn’t have a ready answer for that and frowned, “considering no one is ever going to believe me, I think you can say your secrets lies safe with me, kiddo.”

Danny smiled knowingly, “aw, don’t tell me you’re one of those cops who acts tough, but’s actually all soft and squishy on the inside. Have I caught myself a mushy cop?”

Nichols scowled, but let the immortal have his fun, “funny, now back to the story – when did the run-down life get you in the end?”

Danny scoffed, “hey! It wasn’t like that, I didn’t walk with a shopping cart with my belongings down the streets, if that’s what you think. I actually drove a car from place to place. I found it by the roadside and waited a day or two for someone to claim it and when no one did, I took it and drove it from town to town. I did small jobs where I could find them and since I was alone and didn’t have any expenses other than gasoline, I made some extra money and began to look for a place to stay and take up my duties as a superhero again.”

Nichols suddenly knew where this was going and groaned, “don’t tell me you went to New York – that’s so cliché.”

“Hey! I was superhero there before it was cool,” Danny defended insulted and placed a mocking hand above his heart and then grinned, “the Ghost Busters had come to take the big city, baby!”

Nichols buried his hands back down in his hands.

This was going to take some of his lifespan, he just knew it.

   
 

 _Year 1925, New York City’s streets, New York, USA_

_**“The ghost busters had come to take the big city, baby!”**_

   
   
 

“Looks like how I imagined it.”

Danny stared out the side of the small cramped Ford and took in the experience the city offered his five senses.

He inhaled with a smile, “yep! Dirty, loud, stinking, and exactly as I thought it would be. Big. Looks like we have found a new home.”

Danny patted the side of the old brown hull and eased into the traffic as the street opened before him in all its capitalistic glory.

He had had his doubts about coming to a place like this, but now that he was in the middle of it, he honest couldn’t remember why had had disliked the idea of living in one of the big cities.

Danny hadn’t made New York his number one choice, but one of the guys from his last job as a dishwasher had given him a number to a fabric that needed some extra workers and since Danny had the strength to impress, he might as well take the chance and go there to see if it was anything for him.

Danny took the time to find a place to park on the packed sidewalk and took a second to hide some of his few belongings under a blanked in the back seat.

The Ford didn’t exactly have locks or windows, but Danny trusted that the dents and rusty diarrhea paintwork would make most people think twice before stealing. He did a last precaution by bringing his gladstone bag with him.

It was his only actual bag and had cost him more than he had earned, but it was a reliable bag that was big enough to hold the possessions that was actually worth something.

Danny squinted against the sun and moved into the shadow of the building, glad to escape the sun for a change and started his journey down the street to find a phone booth.

Danny passed a couple of people with some raised signs and paid them no mind as he found what he had been looking for and ran to the open grey box with the promising words “phone” on the top.

Danny found that a dark man was already occupying it and took a minute to observe the street as he waited.

He tilted his head a bit as more people ran across the street with signs, disturbing the traffic and making the angry drivers yelled out to make them move. Danny rose both his brows as the people began to beat the car hoods with their signs, proving to be just as angry.

“Crazy giggle water lovers,” the man in the booth mumbled and hung up the phone.

Danny took up the space as the man left with a shaking head at the street sight and Danny balanced the still warm phone between his shoulder and chin.

Sat down his bag to find his wallet and fish out the small piece of paper with the number for the fabric – and hopefully his new job. Danny turned his back to the evolving scene, feed the phone his few coins and waited for the reception to get through.

He scratched his jaw in the clammy heat and felt stubs under his nails. He really need a shave. The phone took its time and he had come to the conclusion his cents had been used for a lost cause, when a gruff voice sounded from the phone’s other end.

_“Stevens and son’s company and delivery, what can I do for you?”_

Danny sighed in relief and tried getting the name from the smeared handwriting on the paper, “Mr. Stevens? My name is Danny Fonten, I’m calling on behalf of one of your old employees, a John McCoy? He told me you might needed some strong workers and would recommend me.”

Danny waited as the man began to move with something sounding like papers and Danny pressed the phone to his ear, as the shouts and car horns increased in intensity. Changing his name had been a percussion Danny had taken a few years ago.

Despite Vlad’s death, Danny was still afraid that some people could be searching for him, as his body hadn’t been found in the ruins.

Being found alive and well after all those years would be hard to explain and only make it look like might had had something to do with the destruction of the castle…. which he had, but that was a whole other conversation.

And in any case, changing his name had been a lot easier, as the old name Fenton often made people ask question. Questions Danny couldn’t answer without exposing himself.

Better to stay the unknown Danny Fonten, than be recognized as the rich heir to the Masters money.

“It’s not to be pushy or anything, sir, but I really need the job,” Danny continued as the silence stretched on, “I’m a reliable fellar, I can start already today if you let me.”

Mr. Stevens rustled with some more papers and smacked his lips in an unpleasant way, _“I’m sorry, son, but I have all the men I need right now and to be frank – that McCoy kid wasn’t exactly one of my most favored workers. You’ll have to try your luck elsewhere.”_

Danny leaned his head against the side of the both, “but maybe I could come by and do some errant if you –”

The line went dead and Danny pressed his lips into a hard line as he stared down at the phone. He hung it back and waited for half his money to be returned by the machine and groaned when it kept it all.

Danny was ready to phase his hand in there and get his rightful money, when an obese woman with a child under her arm cleared her throat loudly. Probably knowing that Danny was about to do something funny to the machine.

Danny grinned sheepishly and told himself to go back later for the money. Instead he grabbed the old newspaper someone had pressed behind the phonebooth seat and hurried to get going.

Danny scowled as he carried his bag down the street and stopped to settle down on a lone bench. He opened the paper and found that he was sitting with a two-day old The New York Times and flipped to the job section.

He had circled out some options when he became aware of the result of the previous street quarrel and found that the entire traffic had been stop by pure anarchy.

Protesters marching in flock with raised signs had taken control of the street and Danny read some of the signs in interest.

**_Foreign vessels now carry our tourist trade all getting American dollars!_ **

**_Prohibition is ruining our Merchant marine! 600 American vessels are tied to the docks!_ **

**_Stop prohibition! To congress! Give us back the fair American trade!_ **

Politics wasn’t really Danny strongest topic or interest, but he guessed people should be able to enjoy alcohol as they pleased.

More and more illegal booze was finding its way into the greater cities and causing increasing criminals, if not gangsters getting blood money from the pocket of the same politicians banning the beverage.

Danny returned to his paper to read a small section about a club needing some waiters, when a mass of long straight hair, the color of deep ink, caught his eye.

Danny’s attention was immediately driven to the woman up front of the demonstration and he felt his mouth dry out.

Was that…?

“Sam?”

His voice hadn’t been near reaching the woman with her back to him and Danny hurried to grab his bag and leave the newspaper behind. Already forgetting all about it.

“Sam!?” he called, but was easily drowned out by the shouts of the marching people and hurried to follow them as they moved down the street.

If the Gladstone bag hadn’t literally been all he owned in life, Danny would have left it to move faster, but kept a tight grip in it as he ran down the street and in between cars.

He couldn’t see her face, but the long black hair and the slim figure convinced him to the core. Seeing her in a demonstration was so her, even if it was for the course of anti-prohibition.

He had never gotten the chance to ask her what side of the topic she was on. Now he would. He would get to ask her a lot of things. Danny smiled bright as he ran up to her.

He had found Sam.

“Sam?”

The young woman turned to him and gave him an interested stare. Danny felt his heart sink to his feet. This wasn’t Sam.

The woman ignored him as he stopped and she and her fellow people of rights moved on and left him behind. Danny sighed and returned to the sidewalk. Disappointed, friendless, and still unemployed.

He walked back to the phone both to get his much-needed money and found that a line had formed. Danny dragged a hand down his sweaty face and gave up on the whole debacle. The sun was setting anyway and he needed to find a place to sleep.

Seeing that he didn’t have a job to pay for the rent and the possibility of getting a decent job whatsoever wasn’t exactly in near sight, Danny decided to hold onto the money he had in his wallet.

He had slept in his car many times before and could save some money there. Danny’s heart dropped for a second time that day as he finally found the spot he had parked his car, but not the car.

Danny walked up and down the street a couple of times, just to be sure he hadn’t passed his car by mistake or something, but had to settle on the fact that, yes – someone had been desperate enough to steal his car.

“Welcome to the big city,” Danny muttered bitter and rubbed his tired sweaty neck.

Above him the sun had vanished behind the tall buildings and left the street in a begging darkness. Danny began to walk as he searched his options.

He could always fly to the nearest empty building and sleep there, but then he’ll risked getting robbed in his sleep and wake up with nothing but his socks.

Just phasing into the nearest empty house and use it while the owners were out for a few hours was tempting, but still going against his moral codes.

Danny could use his last savings on a room, but then he would be standing with nothing at the end of the week, if he didn’t get a job before that.

Sleeping in a church was his last option, but Danny had only known small village churches and those made of tree up north, and found that he wasn’t sure he would risk sleeping in a city church.

He couldn’t be the only one needing a place to sleep tonight and if he was a hobo – which he might end up as if nothing changed – he would think of sleeping in a place like that.

Meaning there might be people guarding the churches at night and prevent something like that. Danny wasn’t going to risk getting into any fights on his first day in New York and felt his options getting slimmer and slimmer.

Then what to do?

Danny didn’t know and asked himself if he knew anyone in New York? Not that he recalled.

Danny shook his head and stopped as he caught the smell of cigarette smoke and heard the chatter of happy people. He turned his head and found a club.

The urge to join them and sit down just for a minute made Danny bite the inside of his cheek and he sent the dark streets one last glance, before he turned and walked to the club’s entrance.

The inside of the place turned out to be a lot bigger and a lot more expensive that first predicted. Danny felt out of place with his old suit, stubbed jaw, patched jacket and all but ran to a lone corner of the bar.

He pushed his bag down between his feet and took a look at the options the bar offered.

The sound of posh laughter and the crashing sounds of billiard games, made Danny feel a strange sort of familiarity and when a smell of cigarette smoke reached him Danny could almost believe everything to be fine.

“What can I get you, Sheik?”

Danny opened his eyes to find that the bartender was ready to take his order and Danny smiled sheepish, “something that’s strong and my wallet can take. And the name’s Danny, not sheik.”

The woman laughed and the friendly sound made Dany forget his troubles.

“It’s just something you call a handsome fellow and your out of luck already? You’re one of those, huh?” she mused and shook her head of bouncy short curls.

The metallic red became almost theatrical in the dimed lightning and she pushed a tall glass of fruit juice towards him.

“If you want something stronger than that, you’ll have to take your business elsewhere or talk to my boss and bee a tight-lipped fellow about it, sugar. We have to keep up the appearance as a business following the prohibition of alcohol. Can’t be a Joint in broad daylight. Sorry.”

“It’s a shame,” Danny smiled and felt the cold ice cubes do their wonder on his dry throat, “sweet dames like you should be able to get a cocktail when you feel like it.”

She giggled charmed and moved to serve another costumer.

Danny sipped his virgin drink and allowed his tired mind to lax and told himself to enjoy things for a change.

The rush of moving nonstop to get to the next job in line had made his mind stressed and tired him out slowly. The endless jobs that ended just as fast as they hired you – sometimes with pay, sometimes not.

The haunted places if not ghosts terrorizing lone villages and broke down towns who needed a hero. An unpaid hero.

Danny didn’t regret any of it, but now he just wanted to find a place he could call his own and he’d decided that it was reasonable in an age of twenty-five. He had been running from himself long enough.

It was time to stick those roots in the ground or whatever people said these days and make something of himself.

Danny’s relaxation was interrupt on a highly rude level when his ghost-sense went off and Danny groaned, “great – _unpaid_ work…again.”

Danny left a couple of crumbled dollars on the counter and grabbed his bag. He walked through the building as he followed the sense of his ghost powers and searched the place for a ghostly aura.

He stopped as his core told him to halt by one of the pool tables and Danny observed the group of people playing over a glass of soda and cigarettes. The scene seemed innocent enough, until one of the women suddenly threw her drink in her partners face with a laugh.

The group was clearly shocked by this behavior and the woman made a couple of harsh name-calling about the rest of her playmates before she left the table crackling loudly. Danny followed the woman with his eyes as she ambled to the nearest bathroom.

The same woman immediately returned with a calm smile and greeted the table with a grin. The other scowls at her and immediately started to take their anger out on her. Danny watched as the woman only stared blankly, utterly confused by their behavior.

He left the scene in favor of turning invisible and walked into the bathroom. He stopped by the sight of the woman – or copy of the woman – by the long mirror and the doubleganger giggled satisfied to herself.

He stayed silent as the female bounced in on herself and morphed into a faceless ghost with big red glasses.

“Ah, another day, another place to bring upside down,” the ghost grinned and admired his true face.

The ghost send himself a gun-finger in the mirror and collected his long black trench coat, fedora and cane to leave, when Danny became visible.

“Going somewhere Mr. Doubleganger?” Danny asked cocky and startled the ghost.

“What the? This is my territory – ME! Amorpho! Get out of here, stray ghost!” the faceless ghost scowled and made a ‘shoo-shoo’ gesture.

Danny turned ghost and let his bag fall to the ground.

“Well, guess there’s a new ghost in town, face-less,” Danny smirked and summoned energy to his hands.

The ghost’s glasses widened comically, “what? You can alter your appearance too!? That's MY thing! You’re stealing _MY_ thing!"

Danny was prepared as the ghost flew at him and smacked the ghost with a harmless ecto-ray. As predicted, this wasn’t a very strong ghost and Danny wouldn’t have to use any real effort to dominate this one.

But the ghost’s shapeshifting powers was a problem. Danny couldn’t have a ghost going around ruining people’s life like that if he was to take this territory as his own.

“Tell the others I said hey,” Danny jeered and made ready to form a ghost portal to the zone beneath the ghost.

Amorpho raised his hand and send Danny’s bag flying with a blast. Danny cursed under his breath and hurried to catch it before it flew out the window. Giving the ghost the time it needed to escape.

Danny phased outside with the bag in hand and was getting rather tired of this fight already, playing nice was getting less and less attractive and he just wanted this over with.

He caught a glimpse of a black coat and shot after the ghost into the back alleys of the street. The hunt continued as he phased through a couple of brick walls and clotheslines, when he found a black slim figure hiding in the shadows.

Danny hid his bag in the door to a stairway and landed in the backyard to confront the ghost. The shadow ran and slipped down a narrow alley and Danny followed along with a scowl.

The figure came to a halt and turned back to Danny.

Danny lifted his glowing hand, “we can do this the hard or the even harder way. Your choice.”

The figure lingered in the shadow for a second, before it stepped out of the dark and into the little light the alley offered. Danny’s eyes widened in shock.

“… Sam?”

She tilted her head, as if confused. The hair wasn’t long enough to sway, at some point she had changed in favor of a straight short bob and if the hair wasn’t enough change, she had highlighted her face with a purple shaded lipstick and eyeshadow.

The old schoolgirl uniform had been replaced with a pair of wide black leg pants, a green shirt and a black waits-tight suit jacket.

Even though this Sam Manson had moved on from her overly feminine traits and matured into a much sharper face, there was no doubt that this was his Sam. The young girl was gone, a woman had taken her place.

She was a beautiful sight to behold.

Her purple eyes looked from him to the hand he had lowered. Her purple lips stretched into a wide grin and her hands flared with ecto-energy.

A shoot of ectoplasm lighted up the alley behind her and Sam screamed.

Danny gasped as she fell face first into the dirty ground and remained still. The person behind her with the smoking ecto-gun, pulled something looking like a soup thermos from the leather bag strapped across his torso and opened the food container.

A beam of blue light sucked the unconscious Sam imposter to it and changed her form into a green mist. The lid was closed as the last of the disguised Amorpho was sucked into the thermos and its carrier closed the lid with a little victory dance.

“Oh yeah! Five weeks of hunting the shapeshifter and we got him, baby!”

Danny blinked as he was unnoticed by the young Afro-American, who continued his rather embarrassing dance, not knowing he had an audience.

The black rimmed glasses were the same as the one he had worn back at the boarding school, while his hair had been cut shorter and he had taken up a hint of facial hair below his lower lip.

He had moved on from the sweater and shorts he’d used to wear as a child and was now clad in a dark-green suit and yellow shirt with showing dark suspenders.

A red fedora finished the picture and Danny felt a smile spread on his face by the sight of his long lost best friend.

“I can’t believe it took us that long to catch that Nobody Home,” an annoyed voice scowled and the real Sam Manson turned the corner of the alley to stand by Tucker, “that’s the third time he’d taken my form. That pervert.”

She packed away her gun to rest inside her jacket and moved to walk down the alley with her friend and ghost hunting partner, when they suddenly noticed Danny.

Both froze instantly and Danny watched as their faces changed from surprise, confusion, recognition and then shock. Danny transformed from his black battlesuite and white hair, to his wild black tresses, patched coat, grey slacks, and plain faded shirt.

He scratched his neck with a boyish smile, “hey guys…long time no see.”

He got a second before both they jumped him.

“DANNY!”


	17. The gang is united and war stories are shared.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previosly in the fic:
> 
> Danny ran from his past to built up a new life in New York as Danny Fonten. While taking the city as his new territory he stumbled into a part of the past he had lost forever.  
>  _Both Sam and Tucker froze instantly and Danny watched as their faces changed from surprise, confusion, recognition and then shock. Danny transformed from his black battlesuite and white hair, to his wild black tresses, patched coat, grey slacks, and plain faded shirt._  
>  _He scratched his neck with a boyish smile, “hey guys…long time no see.”_  
>  _He got a second before both they jumped him._  
>  _“DANNY!”_
> 
> But the past has it's ways of following Danny and the old doubts are hard to leave behind for good  
>  _But…where did ghosts go when he made them cross over? A sudden fear that the ghosts he had thought to have saved, had been banished into some hellish afterlife in mistake, made it hard to breath._  
>  _Ghost writer patted his hand to regain his attention, “If it’s to any use, I believe you send ghost to somewhere better with your powers. And even if I won’t accept your unknown gift, don’t cry for me, Danny. If any, cry for your own sake.”_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all you wonderful people :D  
> it's amazing if not crazy how many people have bothered to comment on this and i'm pretty much dying every time i see a new comment you're all so special to me, i can't even begin to describe how crazy amazing this is  
> Thank you!!!  
> hope you enjoy and again - comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1925, a diner, New York City, New York, USA_

The café going by the charming name _Amaryllis_ had the interior of a friendly diner and the style of a cheap salon.

Danny was pretty sure a sandwich in here would take his last pay right out of his wallet and secret pockets, but nevertheless, he was now eating from the head menu and having a greater meal than he had gotten in months.

The food kept coming and he hadn’t used a cent, as his two old friends kept insisting on paying and for once Danny wasn’t embarrassed about accepting handouts.

Both Sam and Tucker had sat down with him in the café booth to eat dinner as well and it had amused Danny to see that none of them had changed much.

Tucker stilled insisted the food-pyramid should have meat as its priority and ordered all the café’s cold cuts and bacon option to rest between to buns, while Sam continued to stick with her vegetarian believes and ordered a sandwich consisting of vegetables and salad instead.

“You gave us a shock back there, Danny,” Sam scowled and forced him to take the coffee she had bought, even though he was full, “how long has it been? Ten years?”

“Eight years, two months and twenty-four hours,” Tucker corrected and Sam pushed down his calculator-machine that seemed to take up most of his leather bag.

“What we mean is – what happened, Danny? We read that article about the Master estate exploding and leaving no survivors whatsoever. We even attended your funeral! And now you here and well?”

The mention of a funeral worried Danny a bit.

He had expected that something like that might had occurred after he left England, but he had shoved the thought away so many times he hadn’t actually taken the time to think of the consequences his ghostly wail could have inflicted other than the obvious destruction.

Jazz in a black dress appeared before his eyes and Danny put down his cup. Exhaled slowly, “it’s a long story.”

“Oh yeah? Well it better be a good one,” Tucker warned and shoved his shoulder in goodwill, “me and Sam put a lot of work into interrogate ghosts to inform us if you had spawned in the Ghost Zone after the funeral. Hoped you would return since you…well you know, was kind of halfway there to be a ghost. No offends.”

“None taken,” Danny snorted.

“Yeah, well, after a couple of years we began to accept that you weren’t going to return as a ghost – well mostly Sam, not me.”

Sam sent him a murdering look, but the engineering enthusiast just returned her glare, “what? I’m the optimist of this company and you know it’s true – I never stopped looking for you, man. I even began to walk around with a Ouija board in my desperation!”

Both Danny and Sam slammed the board out of his hand in horror.

“Tucker no!” they hissed and Danny grabbed his friend in grave seriousness, “we promised never to touch shit like that after the school play indecent! I’m not going to send that freakish Shakespeare Drama queen to Sir Hamalot back to the Ghost Zone one more time, you hear me!?”

Tucker patted his head, “well now I do – what took you so long to call us, Danny? What happened!?”

“Yeah, what happened? I like to know to,” Sam added and pulled out a cigarette.

Danny sent it a look, “you smoke now?”

“Sam is pretty much the real deal around here, Danny-boy,” Tucker mused and pulled him in with an arm around his shoulder to observe Sam from their side of the table, like some rare sighting to behold, “Sam is one of the leading underground chairwomen of the women’s fight for seat in the congress and anti-prohibition. She was the one to plan the demonstration today. Her alias as Mary Sue is wanted by the police of New York!”

“Could you keep it down?” Sam sneered and looked around the café, before she pointed to Tucker with her cigarette, “and talking about what’s we’ve been up to – Tucker here is misusing his father’s engineering business to smuggle booze into the underground city and fill all the secret lair with weak sherry.”

“Shhh!” Tucker hushed panicked and now it was his turn to look around in secrecy, “what do you think pays for all our ghost technology? I can’t use my inheritance and get caught by bankers – my mother would kill me!”

Sam sniffed drily, “same.”

Danny couldn’t keep a small laughter back. Watching Sam and Tucker bickering like that and discussion ghost matter as in the old days made Danny want to lay down and cry like a child.

He had missed their company so much. He had missed his best friends.

Both of them stopped arguing and watched him for a second before they laughed as well. Sam was the first to get it together, “so Danny, where have you been all these years?”

“And why are you dressed like a bum?” Tucker asked and got the stink-eye from Sam.

Danny offered them a wry smile and scratched his neck. How much to tell them?

“Well as you know, I start living with Vlad…” Danny began and felt a mix of raw emotions rush through him.

Both Sam and Tucker shared a short glance of worry. They had heard something in Danny’s voice to.

“I…”

 

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

“…I told them what my heart could take at that time,” Danny explained and ran a hand through his wild hair, lost in memories, “I didn’t wish to lie to them. In the past I could tell them everything – I even told them Vlad was a halfa, that’s how much I trusted them, but…I couldn’t tell them what had ate me up for eight years.”

Danny looked up when a hand was placed on his shoulder. It wasn’t much, but the way the old cop squeezed his shoulder and looked into his eyes with that understanding look of his, spook to Danny in more ways than any comfort he had found in years.

Nichols could see that Danny understood the man wasn’t pitying him, just wished to let him understand that the man stood by him. That Nichols wanted to be there for him. Danny closed his eyes and relished in the feeling of the other’s compassion.

Imagined this was how it would have been like to have a father. Maybe even a trustful elder to care for him without ulterior motives. Danny placed his own hand over Nichols’ and gave it a thankful squeeze.

He didn’t cry, hadn’t done for decades, but when he opened his eyes, Nichols thought he saw the child of Danny Fenton look back at him.

The English kid that had played with ghosts and found laughter in the simple things, like church choirs, hide-and-seek in old mansions and rides on a rusty bike twice his size. The innocence of this scarred man, cursed to walk the earth in the body of a half-dead youth.

“I kept Vlad’s sexual abuse to myself,” Danny continued after Nichols had removed his hand and returned to his seat, “but I admitted the overall beatings and captivity to them. Explained to them why I hadn’t been able to answer their letters and why I never returned to boarding school even after the war ended. Told them the truth except from the one thing I kept to myself. Of course, they believed me, they were my friends, my ghost hunter comrades, my loved ones. They held no grudges, no judgement and no whatsoever. They just took me back, they just opened their arms and welcomed me back into their hearts like nothing had happened. Like I’d never left – and for a time I could believe that nothing had happened, that we had never been apart and my time with Vlad had been a vague dream, a nightmare of my past. I could believe in myself again.”

Nichols smiled, couldn’t begin to tell the kid how happy he was for him that he had made it back on foot after all that.

“I believe you said something about becoming the first superhero of New York?” he jabbed with a grin and Danny chuckled like a young carefree man.

“You betcha. Both Tucker and Sam helped me get back on track by lending me money and as we began to hunt ghosts like in the old days, Tucker got an idea that would blow our minds.”

“What?” Nichols asked and leaned forward in excitement.

Danny’s grin widened, “’Phantom private ghost investigations service.’ – ‘Phantom investigation’ for short. The first real ghost hunting service of New York, I’ll tell you. You wouldn’t believe the money we made, we even got called out of the state to hunt down ghosts for people. It was crazy business.”

“I’ve heard of investigations services like that,” Nichols admitted and rose an eyebrow, “did you wear a cape to?”

“No capes,” Danny replied and made a grimace, “reminded me too much of Vlad, but Sam did change my ghost gear a bit. White boots and gloves, a gadget-belt and a phantom logo she made herself. I kept that design 'til this day.”

Nichols recalled the DP logo on the kid’s chest when he was shortly in his ghost form. He had almost missed it as he had been to focus on the kid’s guts, as the wallet had been pulled out.

Said wallet was still lying innocents as ever on the table and Nichols wondered what secrets it held as Danny pulled out more newspaper cuttings.

“Phantom got his face in the papers when we defeated a ghost name Undergrowth. And later again when we took down Hotep RA.”

Danny smiled proudly as Nichols read the articles and pictures of the smiling Phantom standing beside his fallen foes. Undergrowth had apparently almost spread central park to the end of the city and Hotep RA had turned the Museum of the City of New York into new Egypt.

“Impressive,” Nichols grunted, the size and destruction of those ghosts was pretty horrifying to say the least.

“What can I say,” Danny smirked with false modesty, “I was born to be a ghost hunter.”

“I thought you wanted something else in life?”

Danny cooled down a bit and an insecure expression came over his features, “yeah, but not knowing what you wanted didn’t really pay the bills for the office or apartment. And to be honest, I just wanted to be with Sam and Tucker. They didn’t have to work with their fortunes and Sam’s family was against it, but they both joined the office and did their part. Sam became our secretary and made the money work, since she had a flair for paperwork. Tucker started his own business and workshop up to make our weapons and crafted new inventions like he’d always wanted.”

Danny scratched his neck with a wry smile, “and I did my ghost thing. Made sure that the job was done and that the money was paid. Kept the business running. No one knew I was Phantom, but people came to believe I was some kinda ghost medium who could summon him to drag back the ghost to the afterlife or something. We even took the job of hosting a ghost séance once – it was hilarious.”

“I believe that,” Nichols grunted drily and put down the newspaper cuttings, “how did you handle the sudden fame and success?”

“Poorly,” Danny admitted sheepish, “and the police didn’t like us either, but we managed. I even took up lectures for people to teach them how to handle ghosts. A lot of people came to those late classes, I guess the time after the first world war had made a lot of people believe in the supernatural, as more ghost emerged and more portals spawned above battlefields and mass graves of soldiers. It was a time for ghosts to come out and play. It was a time for a lot of ghosts to return from the dead.”

   
 

 _Year 1927, a school, Manhatten, New York, USA_

_**“It was a time for a lot of ghosts to return from the dead.”** _

   
   
 

“Ghosts. In old English know as ‘gást’, in latin; ‘spirtus’ or ‘sanctus’. No matter the name or label, it is the dead presence of a human or animal haunting the world, due to an unfished obsession or business. Keeping them in their ectoplasmic body and binding them to the earth’s alternate dimension, better known as the Ghost Zone – picture, please.”

Danny waited until the next picture was selected and placed into the monstrous thing of a machine standing at the backwall of the auditorium. He watched his hands become grey due to the picture showing on him and the large sheet behind him.

The spectators and students that had come to the late evening class to hear him speak like he did every Saturday night, mumbled and took notes, as the picture of Sidney Poindexter filled the back wall of the auditorium.

Danny cleared his throat. Had done this for almost two years now, but still not gotten entirely used to the attention and felt a little sting of stage fright.

“This is Sidney Pointdexter – a very young ghost, both in age and dead. He was a ghost haunting the elementary and high school of Ohio and possessed a student February the third every year, in order for this student to kill him or herself in different painful ways. Deaths that until recently had been taken as suicides by the authorities.”

The picture changed and his audience mumbled as a class photo appeared and Danny lifted a ruler to point to the left row of young students, “as Sidney was a very recent ghost, me and my investigators succeed in tracing his origins and found that this ghost was the spirit of the decreased Sidney Hallen Junior. Student of Ohio high school class year 1920 – a student that died after committing suicide by cutting his writs in the boy’s bathroom of the second floor. February the third 1921.”

Danny took a sip of his glass of water as his audience whispered in either horror or interest.

“As expected from a ghost that called himself ‘Pointdexter’, Sidney had been a victim of bullying and picking on him had even become a graduation requirement on the school. The haunting started recent after his death and many of his bullies had been the first to become haunted. Normally, ghosts will crease to exists after their vengeance or obsessions is fulfilled, but Sidney continued to haunt the school even after the death of Richard Harbor, his last know living bully. As we hunted this ghost and got him to talk, we discovered that even though Sidney was aware of his death being avenged, he had decided to continue to haunt the school in order to take the lives of all those who dared to pick on the ones weaker than themselves. In short – Sidney had made it his obsession to haunt bullies for the rest of eternity.”

The picture changed and Danny began to wander in front of the sheet like he had a habit of doing.

“In most cases, ghosts can be helped to cross over to the afterlife as they are helped to fulfill their obsessions, but since his obsession would cost the lives of several generations of students, me and my investigators decided to banish him to the Ghost Zone and abandoned the case.”

Danny squinted a bit as the picture changed and caught a second’s glimpse of his audience as the next picture was placed into the machine. He recognized a head of red hair as New York’s chief of police and smirked to himself.

The man was still looking for an excuse to put Danny behind bars and expose him as Phantom, but the man was utterly alone with his accusations of Danny being Phantom and Danny had made it his little private joke to torment the man for fun.

Wes Weston was such an idiot.

Danny watched as his cloths became a darker grey and adjusted his non-prescription glasses, before continued on.

“Unfortunate, not all ghosts can be traced back to their human life and that makes their obsessions harder to fulfill, as their identity, human remains, or last known ancestors has disappeared with time. This ghost, better known and only known as ‘Desiree’, was a ghost first encountered in Paris and later on at an auction of Berlin in 1812. As a ghost claiming to be a spirit of a lamp, she traveled where her lamp went, like in the old Arabian folktales of wish-granting jinni and ended up in the home of a collector in Bronx a little year ago. She didn’t haunt her surroundings as such, but used her ectoplasmic illusions to grant the wishes of the humans she encountered and made their whished become vicious as her powers didn’t grant the humans intentions purely as such.”

Danny received a scowl from Wes and Danny ignored him. It wasn’t his fault that the police had been utter useless in that case, or that Phantom had made the police look like fool. They had done that completely themselves.

“Where and when Desiree lived is unknown, but an actionist of Paris could inform us that the story that followed the lamp told that Desiree was a harem girl who had won the heart of a Sultan. He had promised to grant her all of her heart's desires and even a kingdom of her very own. However, she was cast away from the palace by the Sultan's jealous wife. Dying of a broken heart and old age, Desiree had wandered around as a ghost, forever stuck granting whatever wishes people desire. After a long hunt, me and my investigators decided to banish her and succeed, but was meet with her only four months later, as she escaped the Ghost Zone and reappeared in Brooklyn to take revenge on us. We then decided to offer her the chance of crossing over to the afterlife, something we succeed in as we performed a séance and came in contact with the sultan she had served before her death. We closed the case as successful after the two of them crossed over and left earth forever.”

A young lady raised her hand and Danny pointed the ruler to her, “yes?”

“Have you been into the Ghost Zone yourself, Mr. Fonten?” she asked and her fellow study group watched him with expectation.

Danny shook his head, “no, I haven’t been to the Ghost Zone, but my ghost Phantom has. He is the one helping them to cross over.”

Wes Weston scoffed loudly from his seat and the people around his seat shushed him.

“If anyone has a question I can take them now before the break,” Danny offered and made a sign to have the projector turned off for a second.

Danny guessed he could make an excuse this time and take the questions now instead of after and leaned back into the desk behind him to take the questions.

It was mostly the same.

How did you and Phantom meet?

Can I come back as a ghost?

Are the ghosts taking over the government?

Can humans go to the Ghost Zone?

Etc. Etc. Etc. NoTHING new there.

Danny was already lost in the thought of the dinner he was hosting for Tucker and Sam after the lecture and almost didn’t catch the last question, “I’m sorry, one more time?”

“Mr. Fonten – at an age of twenty-seven, you’ve become the most successful man in your field to date and already been notified by the town’s mayor James Walker twice. Yet it has been noted that you remain unmarried, how is that?”

Danny sighed and stared down the smiling journalist. Harriet chin was one of New York’s most brutal columnists and one of the only woman in her top field of journalists.

Danny didn’t particular fancy journalist, as they always seemed to find a way to put Phantom’s name in vain in one way or another, when they didn’t tip the papers to proclaim him a hero instead. But Chin wasn’t one he had come across before.

He could only wonder what her opinion of Phantom would be. He had a slight idea of where her opinion of Fonten laid.

“Marriage hasn’t been of my interest as lately,” Danny replied coldly and lifted an eyebrow as several of the females on the rows made sad expressions.

What the…?

Danny looked around a little confused.

He had known the life of a desired man back when he was the rich heir to the Masters money and title, but now that he was without the queen’s penny and in simple attire, he couldn’t for his life understand this sudden interest the females of the room showed him.

“I see, how unfortunate for many of our female readers,” she smiled charmingly, “but the absence of a love life has made a lot of the readers began to speculate about your past. The name ‘Danny Fonten’ isn’t registered in any known systems and it has come to my attention that you’ve never given a proper interview of your life before your success. Care to comment, Mr. Fonten?”

Danny knew this day might come, but had been prepared.

He ignored Weston’s narrowing scowl and cleared his throat, “I’m afraid my former life was destroyed by the war, Miss. Chin. As a lot of other unfortunate people during the time of war, my family and home was demolished and the possible papers of my birth and family burned with it. As you and your readers might can understand I don’t feel like comment.”

“Well then,” the Asian woman stated ever so carefree and tapped the pencil to her note block, “perhaps I should keep to questions of your present then. Mr. Fonten have you ever studied the rate of ghost attacks of our city before 1925?”

Danny rose an eyebrow, “…no?”

“Then let me inform you that the rate of ghost attacks registered in the area of New York City, Manhattan and Brooklyn has increased with 50% since 1925 – which is the year you arrived to the city, yes?” Chin asked with a smile that made Danny halt for a second.

“What do you…?” Danny began and suddenly felt the chills rush down his spine.

Harriet’s smile had stretched a bit. If she had been equipped with fangs, they would have been peeking out by now. Arrogant and cocky, like she knew something that Danny didn’t.

She chuckled by the sight of his confusion, a dark and charming laughter like dark molted wine. Almost pompous…

Harriet’s eyes suddenly turned inwards and she collapsed where she was standing on the rows.

Danny felt blue mist leave his lips and looked around. The people around Chin voiced surprised outbursts and rushed to help the fainted woman, but all Danny could think of was the shadow that had left her body a second before.

Seeing that everyone was focused on the unconscious woman, Danny bolted for the doors that the shadow had left trough and ended up in the empty hall on the other side.

Danny listened and waited. Soughed with his core after the ghost, but found no ecto-signal in his proximity. He was going to investigate when the doors behind him opened and Wes Weston stepped out.

“Going somewhere, _Phantom?_ ” he asked accusingly with crossed arms and Danny rolled his eyes.

“Do we really have to do this every time you feel like coming around, _Wesley?_ ”

“That’s Chief, to you,” Weston corrected coldly, “and I will only ask once more, where do you think you’re going?”

“Nowhere you can follow,” Danny grinned as he turned ghost and finger gunned the outraged police man with a cheeky grin as he phased down the floor.

He snickered by the sound of the man’s angry curses and began to search the building.

It was late when Danny returned to his apartment of lower Manhattan and passed into his stairway.

He looked around for a second before he transformed and walked the last steps to his front door as human. The search for the ghost possessing Miss. Chin had been without any result or clues for further chase and Danny felt his insides clench.

His shaking hands dropped his keys and had to take a second to lean against the wall and weight his options.

He knew Vlad was dead and that the ghost couldn’t have been him. 1. Because Vlad would have come to take his revenge if he’d survived the destruction of the castle a long time ago and 2. because dead means _dead_ – as in gone and not coming back.

Fucking dead god dammit!

Danny rubbed his tired eyes and exhaled a shaking breath. His nerves hadn’t been this wrecked since…well…Vlad.

Again, his thoughts went to the cursed man. His personal nightmare and omen of dread. The one thing that would always be able to creep under his skin no matter how long the man had been absent in his life.

 _Pack your things and run_ , a little voice, sounding a lot like Phantom whispered into his ear and Danny shook his head with a denying sound. The voice ignored his negative answer.

_He will come for you and he will take you back to some place he can use and fuck you 'til you’re his again. Do you really want that? Do you want to go back to that time? To him?_

“He’s dead.”

_Maybe you want him to come find you. Maybe you want him to take you away. To fuck you senseless and feel desired again._

“Shut up,” Danny muttered to himself and when the voice didn’t cut the crap he slapped himself and felt the sting clear his panicked mind.

Danny forced himself to inhale and exhale slowly a couple of times. Felt himself calm down a bit.

Of course Vlad hadn’t come back from the dead. He was just seeing things. Many ghosts could leer and smirk like that. He was just looking for an excuse to fear again.

He still hadn’t grown accustomed to the sudden fortune his life had taken and just had to stop looking over his shoulder all the time.

_Grow a pair Fenton. Ups, Fonten._

Better not forget he’s Danny Fonten now. Successful ghost medium of New York and wearing glasses for appearance sake.

Danny took of the glasses and stuffed them in his breast pocket. He didn’t need them when he was with Tucker and Sam. He didn’t have to pretend to be someone else in their company.

With lighter thoughts and some hope for the future, he picked up his keys and simple phased through the door. The smell of home cocking and the sound of his two best friend’s bickering made him feel better already and he stepped into the kitchen.

“I tell you, Tuck, you can survive one day without stuffing yourself with meat – tofu is not dangerous, it’s made from Chinese soy milk.”

“It’s non-meat pretending to be meat – that’s just not right, Sam. And how do we know it isn’t poisonous if it’s from china? Those guys hate all that’s western at the moment – it could be one big conspiracy to kill us all!”

Sam looked as if she was more than was ready to force a block of tofu down his throat, when Danny knocked on the kitchen door frame.

“I thought it was Tucker’s turn to make dinner? – smells good by the way.”

“You see?” Sam asked Tucker and helped Danny out of his coat and hat, “I’m making dinner since Tucker tried to justify brought hotdogs as homemade dinner and really, you two should try tofu, it’s good for you.”

“Hotdogs is good, Sam – if you want some you can just take, Danny,” Tucker said and placed his bag of hotdogs on the table while Sam rolled her eyes.

Danny grinned and helped making the table as Sam finished the food, “sorry for the wait, Weston felt like reminding me of his police badge and a ghost possessed one of the journalist back at the lecture.”

Sam and Tucker send him a puzzled glance, as Sam served him a plate of spicy tofu and beans, “since when does ghost go to your evening lectures? Did Weston try to pinch you again?”

“No arrest this time,” Danny just shrugged and tried hiding his unease with a spoonful of tofu.

Sam served a plate for herself and Tucker began on his hotdog. Both could tell that something was wrong, but didn’t know how to confront Danny’s strange behavior.

Tucker got a look from Sam and he turned to Danny, “hey, man, did you…you know…catch the ghost after the lecture? Was it someone we know?”

Danny’s eyes darted and now the two of them was certain that something was _really_ wrong.

“Not really,” Danny began and hunched over his plate, “he got away before I could find out and he left as invisible after he left the body of that journalist, so didn’t get a good look at him either.”

“Then how did you know it was a him?” Sam asked, attentive as ever.

“Just a feeling,” Danny hurried to explain and Tucker bit into his hotdog in thought.

“Hey, Danny, did he say something to you? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost – pun intended,” he snickered and got a scowl from Sam.

Tucker just lifted his arms in question, as if to ask her what she was proposing if his mood-lifting jokes wasn’t appropriated at the moment.

Danny put down his spoon and placed his head in his hand with a heavy sigh, “It’s just…”

“Just what, Danny?” Sam asked and placed a hand on his shoulder, “you can tell us, right?”

Tucker nodded and Danny bit his lip, “…I think it was Vlad. Well I didn’t see him, but the whole situation just… _reeked_ of that cheeshead!”

“But, Danny,” Tucker began quietly, “Vlad is dead. He’s been dead for years.”

“I know!” Danny exclaimed, pinned-up with doubt and anxiety.

Tucker and Sam didn’t take his outburst as an insult and simply put their mind into action.

“We could ask Dorra if he has shown his face in the Ghost Zone?” Tucker offered.

Princess Dorothea had become one of their few ghost allies over the years, as they had helped her to overthrow her abusive older brother and king of her lair.

Danny had offered to help her cross over, bust she had kindly refused, as her absence would only bring danger to her ghostly subjects. They needed her protection, not only from her brother, but from rivaling ghosts thinking of taking her lair for themselves.

“The Ghost Zone would know if he’d come back as a full ghost to,” Sam helped and Danny considered the possibility of Vlad coming back to haunt him. Ugh…

“Sounds like a plan,” he relented and started eating again.

Both his friends took that as a good sign and all relaxed as the dark mood lighted up and the diner conversation took a better turn.

“My mother called the office again, she just can’t let go that I’m breaking the engagement with Elliot, she’s so old,” Sam groaned and earned understanding comment from the two males.

“Just dump him,” Tucker stated hard on, “just dump him like a sack of potatoes. Get it out of your system. That guy is seriously a nut bag.”

“I still can’t believe it took you this long to finally do it,” Danny noted and Sam groaned even harder.

“You guys know my mother! She would marry him for me, if that would make me more of a lady. As in a lady of her book. She still hasn’t forgiven me for making my own money – and speaking of which,” Sam added and picked up her purse at the door, “we got a job tomorrow at East egg. Some rich lady wants us to clear her mansion for ghosts before some party or something she’s hosting.”

“East Egg, huh,” Danny said and wondered what kind of ghost that haunted new mansions like that, “if we’re lucky it’s just a new-spawned ghost haunting the place and prove easy to help or banish.”

“Yeah, fast as a New York minute,” Tucker grinned and Sam returned to the table with her notebook of incoming calls this morning.

“Sure, and if you two dorks are finished up, there have been some ghost sightings down in upper Queens.”

“Got it,” Danny replied and turned ghost.

He formed a portal on the floor and dragged both of them down with him. As the first portal closed and they fell through the zone, Danny formed a new portal beneath them and they landed safe and sound in the Phantom private investigation office.

“Nifty,” Tucker grinned and followed Sam through the office to the two bookshelves of brown hardcovers.

Tucker removed a fake book and pushed a button. They both stepped back as the bookshelves swung aside and revealed a hidden niche holding all their ghost hunting gear.

Sam checked that her guns was fully loaded, while Tucker threw a thermos to them all and strapped on his coat and belt of ghost gadgets. Sam did likewise and they turned back to Danny, now fully equipped and ready for a hunt.

The bookshelves swung back into place, as the portal on the floor closed after them.

They all landed with a thud on the frost covered cement of a small alley near hunters point avenue and the distant sound of incoming trains ran through the chilly night.

Danny was still in his ghost form and searched around with ghost signature as a ghostly radar. Looking for trouble. Tucker and Sam started to walk along both side of him and they listened to the natural sounds of the night, in hope of catching the slightest hint of disturbance.

They had turned a corner of an old fabric covered up with a huge advertising poster of Camel cigarettes _‘I think so too – you can’t beat a camel!’_ , when the sound of fearful shouts and cries reached them from the opposite street.

Danny shot forward, phased through the building and reached the scene before his two friends.

A beam of ice almost hit Danny’s midsection and he threw up a shield per reflex.

The ice reflected his green shield, hit the street and covered everything in ice. The drunk factory workers and hookers of the night, fled the scene as they glided and fell on the slippery street, leaving Danny to deal with the ghost alone.

The large, somewhat childish looking ghost coughed another beam of ice and looked up at Danny with pleasing eyes, “will you be my friend?”

Danny landed one the ground and was accompanied by Tucker and Sam, who had just passed the alley to the back of the factory yard. Danny put up his hands in a somewhat nonviolent manner as he neared the ghost.

Danny couldn’t tell just how old this ghost was, but he appeared to be young both in death and spirit as he watched Danny with open eager.

A pink-striped pajamas was all that clad this ghost’s hunched form and the combination of blond dull hair and the blue skin made him look almost hypothermia. Danny guessed that explained the ice powers.

“Uhm, sure, I can be your friend,” Danny replied and send both his friends a glance, “right, guys?”

“Yeah, we’re like the friendliest people around here, my icy man,” Tucker added and approached the ghost along with Danny.

Sam stayed back as backup should the ghost just be playing a fool’s game.

“Really?” the ghost asked with wonder in his eyes and before Danny knew of it, the big ghost had pulled him into a bone-crushing hug and smeared his nose in Danny’s black jacket, “then I’ll call you my best friend and we’ll be best buds forever!”

“That’s nice,” Danny winced airless and was glad he didn’t need to breath in ghost form, else he would have fainted by now.

He was thankful when the ghost put him back down and Tucker stepped in to let Danny get the cracks out of his back, “hey, so now that we all friendly and all, what’s your name?”

The ghost blinked with a wide smile, “I’m Klemper. I used to live in the Ghost Zone, but the others kicked me out.”

“Figures,” Sam muttered and Danny waved her of.

“Well nice to meet you, Klemper,” Tucker began, “I’m Tucker and this is my friends Danny and Sam – now that we’re friends we would just love for you to keep some of that ice in, buddy. You’re scaring the people around here.”

“I just want to be friends!” the ghost protested and looked as if he was going to make another ice storm. Tucker hurried to put his hands up.

“And you did make friends, we’re friends, right?”

Klemper seemed to take a second longer than normal to think and calmed down with a satisfied smile and slurred voice, “you right, I did make friends. I did good.”

“Yes,” Danny said, dragging out the syllables to try and calm this moody ghost, “and my guess is that you have wanted to make friends for quite some time, right? Did you have friends back when you were human, Klemper?”

“No,” the ghost sniffed piteous and dried his nose with the back of his hand, “no one wanted to be my friend, but now I have you, right?”

“Right,” Danny confirmed, “hey, Klemper could you give us a moment?”

“Okay, friend,” Klemper replied and watched them as they stepped back a little to weight the situation.

“My guess is that this guy’s obsession is to make friends,” Danny whispered and the others nodded, they had reached the same conclusion by now.

“This might be a hunch, but does other than me get the feeling that this Klemper guy died from walking in the snow or something?” Sam asked and they all sent the ghost’s pajamas a glance.

A story of a deformed kid walking the cold night in hunt for friends, already forming without words.

“Aww, he’s like some special-need child, creepy annoying and all. That’s so sad,” Tucker pitied and Danny sighed.

“I guess he’s not a vicious spirit, just one of those hopeless cases.”

“Just help him cross over, Danny,” Sam added as an end to this meeting, “put him out of his misery and let’s get home. It’s getting late.”

“Fine,” Danny replied and put up a friendly smile as the turned back to the impatient ghost, “so, Klemper…have you ever wanted for all this pain to stop? Getting friends is your obsession, right? You got friends now – so how about I as your friend help you to the other side?”

Klemper tilted his head in clear confusion, bite his crocked front teeth into his lower lip, “what do you mean?”

Danny clicked his tongue, the cold oozing from this ghost was starting to affect him and make him shake, “I’m talking about helping you cross over. Help you get to the other side, the better side. Maybe you’ve heard of me? The ghosts call me ghost-boy, but you can call me Phantom.”

By the mention of his name, Klemper literarily froze on the spot and send tendrils of ice down the backyards ground and up the brick walls.

“Uhm, Danny?” Sam began warningly and Danny floated a bit back as Klemper’s creepy, but harmless demeanor, changed to ominous.

“You’re the one that tricks ghosts!” Klemper accused and pointed at Danny with a shaking hand, “I’ve heard of you – you say you sent us to a better place, but your lying! Lying! Lying to me!”

Danny threw up a protecting shield in front of Tucker and Sam, as a blast of ice erupted from Klemper’s mouth and the shot send Danny slamming against the wall behind them.

The moment of peaceful negotiation was clearly over and Sam ran for cover to fire at the ghost. Tucker pulled out his thermos and joined Sam, as Danny turned invisible and tried to get to one of Klemper’s blind spots.

His ecto-blast hit the ghost in the back of his head and Klemper wailed and tried shooting Danny down with his ice beams. The second attempted succeeded and Danny was send into the ground, covered in ice.

Tucker jumped out of his hiding and tried getting the ghost with his thermos, “quit attacking us, we’re trying to help you!”

“You’re not my friend!” Klemper yelled and elevated himself from the ground with a pillar of ice, “you’re all liars!”

“Hey, cold-heated! Take a chill pill!” Danny shouted and shot the pillar with to slicing ecto-disks.

Klemper cried out as the pillar under him collapsed and crashed to the ground. Sam rolled out of her cover and launched the net from her large ecto-gun on her shoulder. The green net wrapped around the dizzy ghost and covered his arms and mouth.

“Now, Tucker!” Danny yelled as he fought to break out of the ice and Tucker raised the thermos.

Klemper yelled muffled as his form was caught in the blue beam and stretched in it. The last of the ice ghost was sucked into the thermos and Tucker closed it firmly.

Sam helped Danny out of the last of the ice and they looked around the iced backyard.

“W-well,” Danny hesitated, his teeth clacking from the cold, “I’ll say o-our first battle with an ice ghost went…n _ICE_.”

“ _Snow_ sorry we had to wait this long to breaking the ice with a ghost,” Tucker added with wriggling eyebrows and the two males grinned.

“Oh, my god, you two are terrible,” Sam groaned and ignored the two men as they high-fived, “have you been planning for this day to come or something?”

“Hey!” Danny defended, “w-we have bee-een waiting way too l-ong to for a-all the world’s best ice-puns to get o-out of your system.”

“Yeah,” Tucker crackled and threw his coat over Danny’s shoulders, “we have been _shivering_ with anticipation.”

Danny snickered as he followed his two friends out of the backyard, but couldn’t hide his unease.

Klemper had accused him of sending ghosts to a bad place. Danny recalled the words of Ghost writer from long ago and touched the key in the chain under his black battle suit.

Ghost writer had believed that Danny’s powers could bring a ghost to final peace and not doom them. But where did his powers lead ghosts when they crossed over?

Danny forced his hand away from the lump and took of Tucker’s coat before turning back to the coat-clad Danny Fonten. He shivered in the cold night and walked fast to get some warmth and catch up with the others.

He just had to believe that he helped ghost to a better place.

He had to believe in himself.


	18. A little party never killed nobody…right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> Danny have his share of skeletons in the closet, but the first one will always be the heaviest.  
>  _The battle between them had been the worst in Danny's childhood, or more precisely, the end of it._  
>  _Spectra seemed to have become a new milestone of his youth. Maybe even his adult life. Danny had just wanted to get away from her and she had seized him with a laugh._  
>  _Feeding of his anger, fear, and confusion. His misery and childish insecurities, shaken to a point where he couldn’t help but to respond upon his instincts. And one of the instincts had activated his ice powers._  
>  _Danny had stared up on ice statue above him, this sculpture who had once been a ghost and his piano teacher. The weight had soon become too much for him and when Spectra hit the floor, she was shattered into a thousand pieces._
> 
> Another one of those skeletons have began to dance as well  
>  _Tucker nodded and Danny bit his lip, “…I think it was Vlad. Well I didn’t see him, but the whole situation just…reeked of that cheeshead!”_  
>  _“But, Danny,” Tucker began quietly, “Vlad is dead. He’s been dead for years.”_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey you amazing readers :D  
> Are you ready for some more of this wrecked fic? Good!  
> Hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, the Capster mansion on East Egg, New York, USA_

“And this is where the ghost was last seen?”

Danny, Tucker and Sam looked around the empty guestroom and found nothing out of the ordinary. It was just like the rest of the mansion’s guest facilities; luxurious, tidy and expensive furnished.

Their client, Mrs. Capster walked in after them and pointed to the bed, “yes, hovering right above one of my guests. The maid and I was alarmed by my guest’s screams and arrived in time to see this green specter hanging above Mr. Spencer. Poor girl had fainted from the shock. She’s still in hospital.”

Tucker took a picture with his camera, making the room flash with a blinding light and Danny moved to stand next to woman in a search for clues. Mrs. Capster had been a helpful client so far and Danny could appreciate that.

The middle-aged woman could have acted haughtily towards them and simply treated them like pest controls, like her type usually would receive Danny and his investigator for jobs like this, but instead she had been helpful and treated them with the respect professionals deserved.

She seemed genuinely interested in helping them and leaned closer to Danny as if to seek protective support.

Which seemed a bit excessive to Danny, the lady looked as fit as any woman her age could hope to be and despite being middle-aged, she was still a beautiful lean woman. Not at all fragile.

“I’m so glad you took my call, I don’t know what I would have done without the closure of such a great protector,” she cooed and Danny felt a light blush color his cheeks.

“Well, glad to help I guess.”

Danny felt her blond curls tickle his chin and moved a bit aside. Behind him, Sam made a sour face and walked in between them, much to Mrs. Capster’s displease.

“Well, the ghost is not here anymore, that’s’ for sure – you said this isn’t the first time the ghost has haunted your residence?” Sam asked a bit eager to finish up and the Lady tapped her chin with a manicured nail.

“Well, the first attack was a month ago, I was hosting an action for a charity association and one of my friend’s daughters was attacked on the second floor. We didn’t see no ghost, but she was unconscious when we found her. The second attack was just a few weeks ago. One of the maid was found in the garden – unconscious as well. We first came to understand this was a ghostly crime after the last attack. That’s when I decided to call you.”

Tucker photographed and scanned the bed for any known ghost-signatures they knew of, before turned to their client with a raised eyebrow, “and did they tell you anything? Can we talk to them?”

“Oh, no, no,” Mrs. Capster hurried to explain, “they are all still hospitalized, you see none of this ghost’s victims have awaken from their unconsciousness so far. The doctors say there’s not much chance they ever will, it’s like…they’re losing their life-force every second.”

Danny shared a glance with the others and Sam turned to the woman, “could you give us a moment, Mrs.?”

“Be my guest,” she replied charmingly and left them in the guestroom to talk under six eyes.

Danny scratched his neck in thought, “does this ghost remind you of anyone we know of?”

“Sounds like some curse or sleep powered ghost,” Sam added and looked out the window, “it could be a ghost trying to kill someone in this mansion and keeps taking the wrong person.”

“Or maybe it’s a vampire?” Tucker offered and got himself a glare from both Sam and Danny, “what? If ghosts exist, they could to – not to forget werewolf, maybe even gnomes!”

“She mentioned it was green and floating above that girl,” Danny clarified and rubbed his arms. Freezing like he was naked under the coat.

Tucker send the snow outside the window as glace before returning them to Danny, “it’s that time of year, huh?”

“I still don’t get it,” Danny frowned and crossed his arms over his four-sweater laired chest, “I didn’t have a problem with cold when I was younger, but it’s like it’s getting harder and harder to keep warmth every winter now. I can even see my breath in here!”

“I’m sure it’s just a ghost thing,” Sam offered and rubbed his arm to help him get a bit warmer, “like the time in boarding school, when you kept phasing trough things when you got nervous.”

“Yeah, remember when you lost your pants in front of Paulina?” Tucker grinned and Danny gave him a playful push that almost toppled the man, “okay, okay!”

“We’re getting of track, people, what kind of ghost could have done this?” Sam asked and both his friends took a seat at the bed. Running over their options.

“Well, it could be a completely new ghost we haven’t encountered before,” Danny finally said and Sam frowned in thought.

“Maybe, but is it just me or does this whole life-force stealing business sound a lot like Spectra?”

“Yeah, what happened to her by the way?” Tucker added and Danny felt his palms get sweaty.

_I killed her._

“I helped her cross over, remember?” Danny reminded them and they both made agreeing sounds.

Danny stared out the window and felt the anxiety from yesterday reform in his guts. One thing was to get reminded of Vlad Masters, another was Penelope Spectra. Danny knew for certain that it couldn’t be her.

He had witnessed her death with his own two eyes. And ghosts didn’t come back to haunt you when they died. They just vanished.

“Well, there’s no proof that two ghosts can’t have the same power, right?” Tucker suddenly said, “I mean, we’ve meet more than one ghost with elemental powers, like fire and control of objects. Why shouldn’t there be another ghost like Spectra out there?”

“It’s highly possible,” Sam agreed with a shrug and Danny nodded after a second.

“It could be it. Do we have a plan now that we know what we’re up against?”

They found Mrs. Capster down in the main lounge where she was currently informing her servants on what decorations for her party she would need.

“Oh, you’ve finished investigation, perfect, when can I hope to be rid of this specter?”

“I’m afraid it’s too early to say, Mrs., but we have a plan on how to help you, you said this ghost only attack young women?” Danny asked and the lady nodded.

“Yes, all of them where young and very pretty ladies. I had hoped you would have been done before tomorrow night, when the party is due, but perhaps you could come again tomorrow and keep my guests safe in the meantime? Making sure that the ghost doesn’t make one of my guests a new victim?”

“Of course,” Danny replied and blinked when three invitations were handed to them. Both he, Tucker and Sam felt a little baffled by the standard of this invitation and Sam frowned.

“Mrs. Charlton…when you said you were hosting a party…”

“Oh, it’s not just any part,” she laughed exquisite and made them all pale a bit, “it’s the annual grand gala of the new year gathering for all of New York’s higher society. There will be at least six-hundred guests if not more.”

“And you expect us to keep an eye out for _all_ of them!?” Danny squawked in horror.

“And be stealthy about it,” she smiled, “can’t have my guests feel like they’re in danger, that would be bad taste. I expect as much from professionals like Phantom investigation.”

“But”, Tucker protested and then raised his eyebrows when a check was placed in Danny’ hands. All of them made eyes by the amount of zeros.

“If you have the ghost by tomorrow, I’ll pay double.”

“Considered it done,” Tucker assured, eyes still fixed on the check.

   
 

It was late evening when they stepped into the preparation of the grand gala.

So far, their investigation had given no result. They had already contacted Dorra to hear the news of the Ghost Zone – no gossip about Vlad or new life-sucking ghosts had come across her – and the visit to the hospital hosting those comatose women had given any further clues either.

Without any more help to crack this case, they had succumbed to the fact they just had to wait for this ghost to strike again and used the day to come up with a plan.

Protecting all the guests would be almost impossible, but maybe they could lure the ghost to them, if they played bait. The ghost had taking its victims in isolated places and only went for young women.

Since Sam was a girl and in both male’s opinion qualified as pretty to the eye – this had made Sam flush a bit – it was only natural that she would play bait and try lure this ghost out in the open by playing a guest.

After a greater argument that none of the two males had been able to win, despite third great efforts, Sam had argued that three maidens in distress would be better than one.

“Still don’t like this,” Danny muttered as they walked down the great hall that would be the center of the gala in just a few hours and Sam snickered.

“Shut up, Gretchen, you’ll be fine.”

“I can believe I’m gonna dress up as a woman,” Tucker winced as they moved to the guestroom Mrs. Capster had offered them to change in.

He fished up the check from his inner pocked and sent it a love-structed smile, “but these clams make it so right.”

“Focus,” Danny groaned and planted their bag on the bed, “everyone remembers the plan?”

“Walk around, expose ourselves in lonely areas and take down the ghost. Try to lure it to each other if possible,” Sam replied and pulled out two wigs from the bag.

“Why do you even have wigs?” Tucker asked and poked on of the hairy things like it was going to come alive and bite him.

Sam rolled her eyes, “I use them when I’m protesting with the female debaters. Can’t have the police knowing my identity. Just put them on, okay?”

Danny was handed the curly blond, while Tucker received a shorter one with black curls. He made a face with a regretful voice, “I’m going to look like my mother, aren’t I?”

“I’m just going to call you Angela, then,” Sam smirked and moved to the bathroom to put on an evening dress.

The two males sighed as they pulled out their own and tried figure out how to put on pantyhose. When Sam returned from the bathroom she was satisfied to see both of them dressed in the disguises she had handpicked for them.

Tucker had been dressed in a deep black and green beaded flapper dress with a peacock motive, long enough to cover most of his legs, that had proved to be a little too muscular to pose as a girl.

His broad shoulders had been covered up with a black velvet fringe shawl and his feet clad in a pair of black shoes. The wig and peacock feather headband took some of his hard edges of and made him look softer.

While Tucker seethed in his dress, Sam turned to Danny and found that the short ivory sequin and sleeveless mesh flapper dress, suited his boyish figure in a way that made him appear as the slender girl type, without too many curves.

The long white gloves and the golden fur shawls did its wonders to take away the attention of the broad shoulder and with the long black tresses and golden rhinestone headpiece, the picture of a young woman was created.

“I’m going so look so petit besides you two. Good thing tall slender women is fashion,” she grinned and earned a scowl from both of them.

Despite their discomfort, they had to admit she had done a good job. Sam herself had jumped into a royal blue deco beaded fringe dress and finished it off with long black gloves, shoes, and a velvet scarf coat of purple stones.

She put on a matching velvet knotted turban, before unpacking her makeup boxes and helped the men get deeper into their feminine sides.

The party was already started with a couple of guests as they finished up and Mrs. Capster glass of sherry slipped her fingers as they stepped into her view.

“My goodness…”

“I know, right?” Sam grinned and lead the two ‘ladies’ into the party.

   
 

“Anyone been attacked yet?”

Danny rocked his feet as he sat on the bed in one of the many guestrooms of the mansion and wriggled the phone wire around his gloved hand.

 _“Not yet,”_ Sam’s voice responded from a phone down the kitchen and Danny sighed.

“Allright, Tucker just called and said he hadn’t seen anything either, I’m going to walk the corridors a bit and see if I can catch any ghostly signatures.”

_“Fine – but you better call us and let us know before you head into a fight, you always do that before we can show up to help.”_

“Got it,” Danny replied and knew deep down that he wouldn’t wait for them either way. Danny never sneaked around a fight. Sam seemed to know this as the silence stretched on.

“Okay, okay!” Danny relented and ended the call, “jeez!”

He drummed his fingers over the candlestick phone as he wondered what to do with this none showing ghost and stood to return to the empty floor of the mansion. He could faintly hear the party downstairs and felt sudden déjà vu.

“This reminds me of Vlad’s parties,” he mumbled to himself and tried getting his dress to cover more of his legs.

He cursed Sam silently for choosing such a short dress, but couldn’t deny how nice it felt to wear one as well. Dresses was actually pretty comfy. But still to exposing for his taste.

His opinion on dresses kept waver as he walked down the corridor in his heels and he send his reflection a tired look as he passed a long mirror and adjusted his wig. Had he meet himself on the street, he probably wouldn’t have recognized himself.

Great…

Danny continued his lonely walk, posing as a vulnerable woman and hoped the ghost would just come for him already. He really, really needed an excuse to change into his ghost halfa and feel male again.

All this walking around waiting gave him too much time to think and made his thoughts wander where they shouldn’t.

He pulled the shawl closer around him, this place was cold enough for him to see his own breath – what was it with people and not heating up their big homes?

“Almost took you for a guest there,” Mrs. Capster suddenly said and Danny turned to her in surprise.

For some reason, he had been clumsy or absent – neither was good – to pass the woman without notice and the elder lady eyed his form openly with a glint of humor in her eyes.

“It’s just a disguise to lure out the ghost,” Danny explained and took the glass of champagne she handed him.

She must have been looking for him since she had brought two glasses with her.

“You should go back to the party,” Danny advised as he walked beside her, “it isn’t safe going around alone.”

“I know,” she replied and took his arm, “but I’m sure I’ll be safe with you, Mr. Fonten. Would you like me to show you the trophy room? One of the girls was found in there.”

Danny couldn’t see why not and followed her to the large doors. It was dark inside and Danny stepped in first, closely followed by the lady. She turned on the light and Danny rose an eyebrow.

“This isn’t a trophy room, Mrs. Capster …”

“Call me Penny,” she replied and locked the door to the grand bedroom.

Danny sent her a confused look. Part of him knew what she was trying to achieve, but the other part hoped that he was jumping to conclusions. His first half was proved right as she leaned into him and placed her hands on his chest.

“Did you know that I used to be a model, Danny?” she asked and tilted her head with slightly parted lips, “I used to be so young and so beautiful, men could never keep their hands of me. Now days they don’t seem to see me at all. Tell me Danny, do you think I’m pretty?”

Danny turned his head when she tried to brush her lips against his and felt the greatest need to push her away, but this was a client and they needed her money to stay in business.

“Yes, you’re still a beautiful woman, Mrs. Capster, but please, this is inappropriate.”

“Why?” she asked and turned his head back with a gentle hand, “because I’m older than you? Or because there’s someone else in your life? That woman you work with –”

“Sam and I are just friends,” Danny sighed, “we had a relationship, but we ended it months ago. Mrs. Capster –”

“Penny,” she reminded him with an understanding smile, “say, Danny, I’ve only known you for a short time and most I know is through the papers that writes about you, but something tells me you’re a man with a lot of trouble weighting down your heart…what is troubling you, Danny?”

Danny shivered as she pressed her hands to his chest and it actually felt like his heart was trying to weight him down. Danny bit his lips and felt like going to sleep, just sleep for a long time.

Old fears and heavy memories returned to the surface and threatened to spill like a flood.

He evaded his eyes, “I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about it.”

“That’s fine,” she assured and caressed his cheek, “I can tell that you’re a troubled person, Danny. Being a medium to the ghost world and saving people must be such a hard responsibility to carry on your shoulders. I bet you doubt yourself at times, doubt yourself as a hero and possible as a human being. Do you hate yourself, Danny? Or something that someone made you feel about yourself?”

A lump had formed in this throat and had slowly started to suffocate him. Danny didn’t know how, but it was like this woman just knew…just knew what he had been through.

Danny felt a sudden need to just pour out everything and cry into her chest, but a shrilling scream ran down the hall outside the bedroom and woke Danny from his daze of self-pity.

He grabbed the lady’s hand and removed them from his chest, “I’m sorry, but that’s my que.”

He ran past her and unlocked the doors to close them behind him, making sure Mrs. Capster didn’t follow him and transformed to Phantom.

He was shooting down the hall and out of sight, before she couldn’t even peek out the door and the woman pouted sourly when all she found was an empty corridor.

Danny continued his course through the mansion’s interior of wall and furniture until he caught up with the unfamiliar signature of another ghostly presence. Danny stopped dead in track to the sight of a green specter with a fainted woman in its clutches.

“Get of her, life-sucker!” Danny warned and sent the ghost flying down the hall with a roundhouse kick.

Danny duplicated before the ghost could regain its orientation and made the duplicate take the guest to safety. Danny was happy to know that he had arrived before the ghost had hurt the woman completely.

She was weak but had awoken in his duplicates arms as they descended down to the safety of the other guests.

The amorphous green blob turned to Danny with an angry red scowl and raised a flaring hand, “you aren’t supposed to be here, she specifically said you would stay out of sight for me to work!”

“Who?” Danny replied suspicious, but the ghost was done talking and fired a ghost-ray.

Danny dodged and returned the favor with an energy wave, causing the ghost to widen his eyes in fear and get flung to the end of the hall and through three walls.

Danny winced by the sound of falling bricks, “maybe I should lower it a bit and think of the house – this could cut my paycheck."

“Dang it, Danny,” Tucker swore as he and Sam was phased up the floor by his duplicate, “who’s going to pay for that wall?”

“Hey! It was the heat of the moment!”

“Stop caring for insurance and let's take down that creep!” Sam interrupted their money speculations and ran down the hall, “come on! He’s getting away!”

True – the ghost had taken the chance to flee and was currently phasing through the window to get outside. Danny grabbed both Tucker and Sam and followed tail with the ghost.

The fresh air hit them first and then the surprise of leaning that most of the party had moved outside.

Several of the guests was walking around the pool of the mansion and enjoining themselves by the outdoor tables, where servants served them hors d'oeuvre and more drinks than the government allowed, along with a large band and dancers at a podium.

“Where did he go?” Sam asked confused as Danny lowered them and transformed back to human behind a bush.

“I don’t know, but he’s still here,” Danny said confused and looked around, “I can feel his signature, he’s here somewhere.”

“Must have possessed one of the guests,” Tucker concluded and the team groaned like displeased students just handed a pop quiz.

“Fine,” Danny sighed, “I begin to feel around with my core waves and find the body he’s in and you start to surround him when you get my sign – Sam?”

“On it,” she replied and put on a large ring.

Just like the thermos, it was a disguised weapon and would shock a ghost like a teaser, powerful enough to make a ghost leave a weasel, but not dangerous enough to hurt the human body. At least in theory.

“You sure it’s safe?” Sam asked while giving Tucker a dubious glance.

“Hey, we've already tried it on Danny while he possessed that rat!”

“Humans aren’t rats,” Danny commented, “plus that rat had several burn marks after and wouldn’t stop twitching for five weeks.”

Tucker just shrugged, “as you said, humans aren’t rats.”

They decided to take a chance on this one and began to walk among the guests. Danny adjusted his dress, now back in one and Tucker and Sam both took a glass of champagne to look more festive.

They spread out in a v formation, as Danny began to focus on his core and send out waves, trying to pick up the ghost’s signature.

They ran into the trivial problem of a group of young men insisting on them to dance with them, but got out of it easily, as Sam threatened them with a gun and continued on.

“He’s in that low gray-haired butler at the corner,” Danny whispered and gestured discreetly to the little displeased-looking man with a plate of drinks in hand.

Sam and Tucker nodded and moved around to cut out the ghost’s escape options, while Danny moved forward, acting as if he was on the hunt for a drink.

The butler kept a straight face as Danny reached for a drink and was ready to flee into the crowed, when Danny stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Nice body, does it do the windows and mix drinks to?”

The ghost tensed and turned to him with a raised eyebrow, “my, you are clever, aren't you? Wouldn’t have guessed you to be that observants with those heavy eyelashes inhibit your sight. Do you come with lingerie as well?”

Danny ignored the jap as Tucker and Sam moved in behind the ghost and Danny decided to up their chances with some banter.

“Good girls don’t date servants,” Danny joked, “so what are you, some life-sucking ghost?”

“I like staying young and beautiful,” the ghost replied with a smirk, “miserable people like you just hands it out for free, so tragic – I’m honestly surprise she let a hot case like you go of as easily. You’re like a walking spa treatment!”

“What are you talking about?” Danny asked confused and kept the ghost from wriggling free, “who do you work for? who are you, ghosts?”

“Names Bertrand, big boy,” the ghost offered drily, “and as for my partner, I think you two have already meet. She did not lie when she called you a freak! Not a ghost, not a boy! Everyone is so obsessed with you, while the rest of us just despise you. I still can’t see what causes the fuss about you – who cares for a thing like you?”

“We do,” Sam answered and pressed the ring to the ghost’s back. Bertrand winced as he was shocked and feel to his knees.

They hurried to cover up the scene with their bodies and prepared for the ghost to leave the body of the butler. There was just one problem…the butler was the ghost.

Danny, Sam and Tucker widened their eyes as the butler’s form morphed in pain and returned to its original green blob like appearance.

“Oooh, he’s shapeshifter,” Tucker concluded.

Bertrand groaned painfully and created a butterfly knife in his hand with an outraged expression. The three of them stared, the part around them still obvious to the danger they were hanging in.

Bertrand swung it a couple of times and showed of an impressively skill of handle the type pf knife, before raising it threatening in Danny’s direction.

“I’m really not up for this tonight,” Danny droned and pulled out his own thermos and sucked up the ghost, “if it’s all right with you two I like to interrogate him a bit before we send him back to the zone.”

“Why?” Sam asked, as Danny stuffed the thermos down his purse and Danny’s eyes darted.

If he told them he wanted to know more about the partner of this ghost he would have to voice the fact that he had two possible names in mind. One was Vlad, which would only make them tell him to stop fuss about the dead man – the other was Spectra.

He knew he’d killed her, but Bertrand’s words were to alike hers and the whole life-sucking thing was her specialty. But mention Spectra would force him to tell then he had lied when he’d said he helped her cross over.

Danny didn’t need pity or distrust from his two best friends. Not from them.

They were all he had left in this world.

“We still don’t know how to wake up the victims. Bertrand here is maybe our only way to save them,” he ended up saying, which wasn’t entire false – they would probably need Bertrand to wake those women up again.

“Okay,” Sam finally said, but he wasn’t late to catch the suspicious glimpse in her eyes, due to his delayed answer.

Danny just hoped he could keep her of his plate and make her forget about it. But knowing Sam, he would probably have to come up with some satisfying answers soon.

They carried the thermos in Danny purse to the car outside the mansion and Tucker opened the trunk where their hidden lair of weapons rested under a fake trunk floor.

Danny pulled out the thermos and planted it in the machine Tucker had prepared. They only used it for interrogation of ghosts after they caught them, instead of banishing them directly to the Ghost Zone.

It was a box with a hole for the thermos in the middle of it. A little speaker on the side, would allow them to hear and get answers from the ghost inside. A button on the other side of the box would allow them to shock the ghost when they didn’t get a _proper_ answer.

“Alright, start talking,” Danny said with crossed arms, addressing the thermos sternly along with the two others, “how do we get the life-force back to those women you attacked?”

The received no answer and Tucker laid his hands on his hips, “maybe the shock from the _no’ssess-ring_ was too much?”

“Nah,” Danny grunted, “when we tried it on me I was only separated from the rat body, although I could taste my gums for three weeks after – but then again, we didn’t separate him from a body…”

“Just shock him or something,” Sam replied drily, “also – we should change the name of that ring, the ‘no’ssess-ring’ sounds stupid.”

Tucker put up an offended expression, “what? The name is good as it is – ‘no possess’ and ‘no’ssess’, is clever word play, plus it’s funny to say.”

“No, it sounds like I just used a nose-ring on him.”

The thermos laughed refined by their bickering, “my, my, and here I thought I had been caught by professionals, how silly of me. You're not very good at this, are you?”

Sam pushed the button. They all waited while the ghost screamed in pain and returned to his senses as the five seconds’ shock was up.

Sam decided to take up the questioning, “we ask you again, how do we get the life-force back to those women you attacked?”

Bertrand relented to talk and they shocked him again. Danny made sure they were alone in the parking area and that the music from the party covered up the screams.

“Okay! Okay!” Bertrand begged and panted from the aftershock, “you return their life-force by stripping the power of the ghost that has stolen it –”

“Then let’s get some power on this grill,” Sam grinned and turned up the power of the shock button.

“Wait!” Bertrand interrupted panicked, “I wasn’t the one stealing their life-forces, I’m not the one you’re after!”

“Nice try, but I and others have caught you red handed,” Danny said and nodded for Sam to push the button.

“It’s a scheme!” Bertrand blurted to keep them listening, “my partner made it look like me for her to work in the dark – I don’t need life-force to survive like she does, but she promised me one of the guest tonight. She promised that you would be out of my hair!”

Danny and the others shared a glance, not sure how to go from here or if they should trust this ghost. While his friends started to discuss their options, Danny eyed the thermos and made his own plans.

He cut in as Sam was speaking, “ – how about we just fry him up and go see if that was enough to wake up the women on the hospital? That way we know if he’s lying and if not, we have that option singled out and start looking for some partner of his.”

“Isn’t frying him up a bit…excessive?” Tucker asked slowly and Sam turned the button up to maximum.

“Not when there’s life at risk,” she replied severely and ignored the screams.

They didn’t stop pushing the button until Bertrand had stopped screaming and they jumped in the car to drive to the hospital. Eager to see if draining him for power had awaken the victims.

When the car had left the parking area and rounded the trees, Danny turned back visible and looked after the car with his duplicate on the backseat.

He twirled the thermos in his hand a couple of turns, knew tricking his friends was a shitty thing to do, but couldn’t help it. He forced down the uneasy as he walked to the most distant spot of the parking area and opened a portal to the Ghost Zone.

He released Bertrand as they both entered the zone and Danny took a second to adjust his pupils to the new color spectrum and breath down the heavy gaseous ectoplasm that saturated this world.

He allowed the portal to stay open for his disposal and slammed the weak Bertrand against a floating turf of land and bound his tight with a green chain of Danny’s own Ecto-construction powers.

The ghost shook frightened as Danny stared him down.

“P-please, don’t do –”

“I won’t hurt you, if you tell me who you work with,” Danny interrupted and crossed his arms, “so start talking.”

“S-Spectra,” Bertrand stammered, wriggling pathetic in his restrains, “Penelope Spectra!”

“Spectra is dead, I killed her,” Danny replied coldly and the ghost shook his head franticly.

“No, that’s the thing – she just wanted you to believe that, it was a trick.”

“How?”

“Her human form is nothing but a glamor. She takes life-force to ad layers of youth to her glamor and keep a young appearance. She phased out of her outer layer as you froze her and escaped!”

Danny could only stare at him, so many things rambling down at the same time. A great part of him was relieved. He hadn’t killed Spectra. He wasn’t a murderer and he hadn’t let his powers take a life by accident.

At least not Spectra’s. Danny felt a little part of his burden crumble and leave his shoulders, made many years of regret ease and leave him with a lighter chest. But as for the rest of him…

Danny gritted his teeth, felt the rage fill the part of him that had been relived for just a second ago.

“So all this time…” he whispered as his hands began to flare up, “all this time she made me believe I’d blood on my hands. Made me feel guilty…”

Danny could feel he was losing it and energy was building up in his hand by itself. Bertrand was making a silent prayer and was shaking hard enough to make Danny ecto-chains rattle. Danny had no idea if he wanted to laugh or cry.

Ever since he had been fourteen he had been forced to live with a heavy heart and doubted himself, knowing he had taken another person’s life. He had doubted his powers and he had doubted himself.

He had been forced to live with the guilt of Spectra’s life.

For nothing.

The ecto-blast hit the turf and shoot into the zone with the power of a comet. Bertrand had closed his eyes and opened them now to see that the blast had cut a clear bite of the turf only a hair’s inch from his head.

The ghost breathed in relieve only to scream in the next, as Danny pressed the no’ssess-ring to his core. Danny couldn’t say he found glee in torturing the ghost, but hearings his screams and witnessing the pain on his face definitely help on something.

Bertrand fainted after less than ten seconds and laid slack against the green turf. Danny made the chains dissolve and left him there. He closed the portal as he reentered the human world and walked for the mansion.

He expected to find Spectra somewhere in there.

He had just changed to human form and returned to the party before he was meet by Mrs. Capster, who had a servant by her side with a phone on a plate.

“Oh, Mr. Fonten, I just received the good news from your two associates, the women have woken up! You did it, where is the ghost now?”

Danny was a little taken back, the women had woken up?

He took up his duplicates sight and watched through its eyes how the women were sitting up in their beds, all a lot better looking than last time they visited and all of them had turned from pale, to rosy cheeked.

He heard Sam telling his duplicate that he had been right, Bertrand must have lied when he said he had a partner and been the one to take their life-force himself.

Danny made his duplicate tell them to go home and get some rest, while he returned to the mansion for their payment.

Danny returned his senses to his own person and put up a smile for their client’s sake, “the ghost had been banished to its own world and will stay there if he knowns what good for himself. You have nothing to fear.”

“Oh, that wonderful, I believe I promised you a special check for that,” she mused and was given a checkbook from her servant, “I’m so grateful, Mr. Fonten, I must insist on you and your friends to stay for the party. I can arrange a new wardrobe, it’s no problem at all.”

“Thank you,” Danny replied tired, “but I like to go home and make some paperwork, I have early hours tomorrow.”

Mrs. Capster seemed disappointed, but handed him the check nonetheless, “well…if you insist, I suppose I will have to let you go for now.”

Danny thanked, kissed her hand and stuffed the check down his purse, before walking for Sam’s bags in the guestroom and get home.

He had almost reached the stairs when one of the servants offered him a drink from his plate. Danny took to get the man out of his face and drowned it before he took the stairs two steps at a time.

The sooner he got out of these heels the better.

He had reached the door to the guestroom when a strange feeling of dizziness hit him and Danny grabbed the door handle to keep upright. He pressed his forehead to the door with unease and turned the handle unfocused.

He fell with the door, but never hit the floor. To strong arms kept him up and the last Danny heard was a known voice whisper in his ear.

“I’ve missed you, little badger.”

   
 

When Mrs. Capster arrived to see if the drink had done its work, she found no traces of either Danny or the bags.

“Seems like he had enough power to make a portal,” she concluded disappointed and sipped her expensive drink, “but overall, I think it is positive that you have been convinced of his powers?”

A man dressed in a completely white attire and black fedora stepped out of the shadows and eyed the woman.

His cold demeanor seemed to only add weight to his immaculate, if not aseptic appearance and his pale eyes seized her as he lit a smoke slowly. He exhaled a huff of smoke with a narrow-eyed expression and nodded severely.

“You did not lie or disappoint, that is a clear atrocity of both human and ghost world, a halfa as you said,” he replied in an orotund voice heavy with a southern accent and send her a cold look, “as promised, you’re in. But as for your associate –”

“Don’t worry about Bertrand,” she replied lightly, “I knew he would squeal and tell all he knew, that’s why I kept this a secret between the two of us. Phantom has taken care of him, I’m sure.”

“Then I will make it official,” he said and smothered the cigarette with his bootheel as he dropped it on the carpet, “as you have proven to be a trustworthy ally I will allow you to work in my organization; Guys in White. Welcome, Mrs. Spectra.”

“Just call me Penelope,” she smiled and allowed her blond form to return to its red-headed young appearance, “I look forward to work for you – but you must excuse me, I have a party to host.”


	19. Difference between portals and old relationships? Portals leads somewhere new

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Ghost writer once told him a story...  
>  _“Well, he’s a legend, but I suppose he was a ghost since he lived in the Ghost Zone, my friend. He is said to have cataloged every section of the Ghost Zone and wrote it all down in a journal. The very book of the ghost zone.Unfortunately, none knows what happened to Sojourn,” he admitted with a sad smile, “but his journal is still part of the Ghost Zone. Pages drifts around the natural streams in there and are found occasionally by either ghosts or the humans that finds them outside natural portals. If anyone could be determined and powerful enough to find them all…oh what blessing that would be – or curse. Depending on the finder.”_
> 
> And not all ghosts trust Danny to have god intentions  
>  _“You’re the one that tricks ghosts!” Klemper accused and pointed at Danny with a shaking hand, “I’ve heard of you – you say you sent us to a better place, but your lying! Lying! Lying to me!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile, Danny has bigger fish to fry  
>  _“Well then,” the Asian woman stated ever so carefree and tapped the pencil to her note block, “perhaps I should keep to questions of your present then. Mr. Fonten have you ever studied the rate of ghost attacks of our city before 1925?”_  
>  _Danny rose an eyebrow, “…no?”_  
>  _“Then let me inform you that the rate of ghost attacks registered in the area of New York City, Manhattan and Brooklyn has increased with 50% since 1925 – which is the year you arrived to the city, yes?” Chin asked with a smile that made Danny halt for a second._  
>  _“What do you…?” Danny began and suddenly felt the chills rush down his spine. Harriet’s smile had stretched a bit. If she had been equipped with fangs, they would have been peeking out by now. Arrogant and cocky, like she knew something that Danny didn’t. She chuckled by the sight of his confusion, a dark and charming laughter like dark molted wine. Almost pompous…_  
> 
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hello People!!!!  
> Ready for some Vlad action!? Don't lie, we all know we're only reading this to see those two idiots interact in the same room - so lets give it to ya!  
> Hope you enjoy me torture Danny and leave a comment if you wanna complain about fruitloops - or if you just feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, Danny’s apartment, New York City, USA_

The first thing that hit Danny was a heavy headache.

The smell of his own small, but overly furnished apartment, arrived as the next on a long list of recognizable and familiar sensory inputs.

The scent of his own cheap sheets. The sound of the daily traffic from the open window in the kitchen and the light color behind his eyelids, due to the large windows and white wallpaper.

Based on the sound and color, his tired mind decided it was high noon and he relaxed now that he knew he was in a safe familiar place.

The headache aside, he felt somewhat alright and flexed his hands and legs, figuring that he wasn’t hurt, despite not remembering how he got home last night.

Last night…

He had been working. Right? The first hints of something sinister lying just beneath the surface of his peace, started to reach the surface and Danny frowned in his light sleep.

They had been at the Capster mansion…women at the hospital…Mrs. Capster clinging to him…doubt…Spectra…Bertrand…receive the check…get the bags…doorknob.

The recalling of his fall and the sudden familiar – but not less horrifying scent of a lit cigarette, made Danny wake up on the beat and he turned his head with some dread, due to the ringing headache the sudden movement had caused.

A blurry figure began to take form in his armchair, the one by the window. Danny blinked and squinted a bit, details began to move towards the normal. He moved up to lean on his elbow and the figure tilted his head.

“I see you’re awake, there’s water and two aspirin on the bedtable beside you – the clean kind, not that rat poison and coal based rubbish they sell down at the pharmacy.”

Danny didn’t even look at it, as the full potential of his eyesight had return and instead focused his full attention on the threat in the room. Focused on the man that had turned most of his life into a living hell.

Only to find he couldn’t really stare down the man as he had intended at first. If he had been planted in front of a mirror he would have seen that his face had twisted into an expression of utter outrage.

“Is that…permanent?”

Vlad lifted an eyebrow and stubbed his cigarette, before running a hand through his short black hair and beardless face.

Danny stared at the transformation and slowly came to the realization that he could have passed Vlad on the street and wouldn’t have recognized him. Or maybe he would.

Despite the rejuvenating effect the lush black color and clean shaved face had added to Vlad’s appearance, there was still the familiar cut of his long aristocratic face, the strong eyebrows, the thin lips and deep midnight blue eyes.

If Danny wringed his brain enough, he could even believe that Plasmius had merged into the man’s new face. The color was such a huge change – but anyone changing hair color could alter their own image to a degree.

But _de-age_ it as well?

It hadn’t gone pass the man that Danny had run his eyes over him and Vlad smirked, smug as ever – that hadn’t changed a bit.

“Like what you see, Daniel?” he asked with a deep layer of seduction, “I find yours quite _alluring.”_

It took Danny a second to understand what he meant until his tired brain informed him that he was still in last night’s disguise. He pulled down his short skirt with a sudden angry stick of modesty and glared wrathful at the man.

“I’m surprised you haven’t already taken up your old habit of molesting me, since you like it so much, you scum,” Danny growled and ignored his throbbing head as he all but retreated to the bathroom.

Vlad just chuckled as he watched Danny run for a change of wardrobe, “molesting is such a strong word, my girl – try ‘passionate sex’. And heavens know you were more than seducing me last time we made love.”

Danny gritted his teeth back at the bathroom and ripped the blond wig from his head. The shock of finding Vlad alive and well in his apartment, had settled by now and been replaced by the pinned-up wrath that had slept in Danny for seven years like a malicious sickness.

A deformed cluster where his heart should have been. How dared Vlad force his depraved person back into Danny’s life like this? Had he no shame after all he had done to him?

Danny plashed his face in the sink to wash out the last of the makeup and stared at the door with glowing eyes, flaring like radioactive poison.

Made love? Was that really the man’s definition of binding Danny on hand and mind with ropes and the threat of his loved one’s life and safety? To force Danny to pleasure him against his will and force Danny himself to feel pleasure in his shame during the act?

Danny tore of his dress and ruined it in the doing, but he didn’t care in his anger. The man even had the _nerve_ to sound affronted.

“I know you can’t take a hint, but I’m only going to say this once,” Danny warned and stepped out of the bathroom, only dressed in pants and an expression promising sincere murder, “get. Out. Of. My. _Home!”_

Vlad’s eyes narrowed a bit. Danny had grown since his first step into his underweight twenties and put on some weight, allowing his muscles to grow and get more toned in a fashion suiting a man his age.

Vlad would never admit it, but after he had come to acknowledge that Daniel wouldn’t stay an adolescent forever, but actually grow into adulthood as himself, a part of him had felt a tad worried what this would do to the power advantage Vlad had benefitted from for so long.

He had been a grown man when he had been turned into an halfa, while Daniel had been a child. While he had gained control of his full potential soon after his release from the hospital, Daniel had first gained the first specs of ghostly powers around his puberty.

Meaning Vlad had been the superior of them in strength and power control. Been years ahead of the other with control and power strength. But now Daniel was becoming a man.

He was close to reach his full potential.

Vlad needed to get him back on his side _now._

“Oh Daniel,” Vlad sighed, shaking his head forlornly, “seems like my assumptions of you taking this little reunion of ours rudely, was correct. Oh well, at least now I don’t feel so bad about using the Plasmius-maximus on you.”

Danny kept a straight face as he tried to go ghost and found that he couldn’t – he didn’t let it show that he hadn’t been aware form the start and continued to stare down the man in his armchair.

Vlad just smirked, holding himself in a leisurely manner, like he owned the thing.

Smug pompous asshole.

It didn’t take a genius to understand that the man wasn’t going to move and Danny had yet three hours before he could give the man a piece of his mind and show him just how much had changed in seven years.

A little part of him had prepared for this day. Prepared for fighting the man on even terms, despite the old believe that he had put the man five feet under.

Danny eyed the man like he was an indeterminable piece of filth on a public restroom seat and sneered with a toxic voice, “fine. You might have survived that castle, but know this – I’m going to destroy you, Vlad Masters.”

Vlad followed Danny with his eyes as Danny opened his closet in a search for a shirt and connected his fingertips, while enjoying the show of the young man’s backside, “hmm, you’ve always know how to play hard to get, but for your information, my dear, it’s Dalv Masters now.”

“Dalv Masters,” Danny jeered and buttoned his shirt like every last button had offended him personally, “so what? You changed hair color and first name and expect people to believe some new Masters has walked into town? As if, people are going to see through that.”

“On the contrary, people has welcomed Vlad Masters’ russian son to the city with great enthusiasm – especially since he inherited the Masters fortune,” Vlad drawled and sent Danny a pointed look, “after you so charmingly left the castle in ruins, I found myself waking up to hear we had been declared dead. Of course, I was very angry with you at first, but then I realized the opportunity this could prove to be and used my powers to change my testament at my lawyer’s office in the last second. I would have been forced to fake my death sooner or later due to our none-aging nature and this could be a fresh start.”

Danny rolled his eyes and pulled a sweater over his shirt and suspenders, “good for you – now get out.”

Vlad lit another cigarette and sent Danny a knowing look, “that time of year, my boy? If you need someone to keep you warm you’ll just have to say so.”

“Don’t patronize me, old man,” Danny growled and ignored the fact that Vlad was the only source of warmth in the apartment and turned to fire up in the fireplace. Forced his shaking to stay on a nonvisible level, “if you’re here to brag about your new identity and rub it in my face that you survived, then you proved your point.”

Danny caught a glimpse of the time from the clock above the small fireplace and straighten up now that the fire was beginning to grab the wood, “so if you would be so kind and stick up –”

Danny had turned around and was a little startled to find that Vlad had moved from the chair without a sound. Instead they were now face to face, only few inches apart.

Danny could feel the heat radiating from the man and felt the old connection between them move around in this close sphere.

The full realization of how attractive Vlad was inexplicably hit Danny. _Hard_. 

Danny slowly began to understand it had been a bad idea to stay away from a man like him for so long – it did something to his mind to meet him again after being separated. The fact that he had forced himself to believe the man dead…how foolish that seemed now.

He swallowed silently. Despite having moved on from his teens and early youth, his hormones were going erratic again and the way they mixed with his childhood’s steady hate for the man, made Danny’s head twist in confusion.

Danny knew he hated the man, but his body told him otherwise. Turned his sanity all upside down and made his body remember the man’s training.

He could hate an enemy and despise some humans for hurting him or the ones he cared for, but Vlad would never be just an enemy, no matter what he told himself.

Danny had slept with the man and had hated every second of it – that he had been sure of for years. But now his head told him that he had lied to himself all along. That it hadn’t been that bad and that he just needed to give it a second chance…

Damn hormones and the emotions of a young heart.

Vlad was no mind reader, but he had always seemed to decipher Danny in a certain way. Teased Danny about being an open book for him to read and mocked him for never mastering the art of hiding one’s emotions.

Danny tensed as Vlad lifted his hands to his face, ever so calm and Danny blinked a little surprised as his glasses was placed on his face.

The younger stepped back to make some distance, not that there was room for much with his back to the fireplace and all, and adjusted the glasses with a displeased scowl.

Vlad just scoffed with a smirk, “they suites you, my boy. A clever little disguise to create some difference between you and your ghost-half now that you have chosen to take up hero-duty again. Pathetic as it is. Same goes for the name ‘Fonten’. If you really needed to create a surname after an anagram, then at least make it out of ‘Masters’. I didn’t give you my last name for nothing, Daniel.”

Danny crossed his arms. Strange as it was to stand here bickering with the man after seven years of separation, it was almost incredible how easy it was to fall back into the roles of their yearly stage of relationship.

“Like I would keep your name, you self-absorbed creep,” Danny sneered and poked the man’s chest with a finger, empathizing every syllable with a hard stab, “and you’re one to talk – pretending to be your own son? People knows you here in New York, Vlad. A trip to the hair salon and your first name turned backwards, isn’t going to fool nobody.”

“To your information,” Vlad drawled and pushed his finger away with a scowl, “it has fooled everyone – even you. My picture has been in the paper at least five times since fall and I didn’t find you knocking on my door for answers. Really, I had begun to get a little _impatient_ , Mr. investigator.”

Danny’s felt his ears turn red. Vlad had been in the papers? And for how long? Danny really needed to pay more attention to the press and check some papers to see what Vlad had been scheming.

Danny could both literally and figuratively feel his detective ego receive a crack.

God dammit.

“Well at least I made myself a name as Fonten, instead of reusing an old role as a rich geezer,” Danny jeered in lack of better bricks to throw.

As always, Vlad was not amused of being called old.

“Being frozen in one’s thirties isn’t old, you little brat,” Vlad replied sourly, falling to Danny’s childish level for a second, before he collected himself and regained his signature holier-than-thou pose, “but let’s not dwell on the fact that we both have been forced to reconsider our lives and identity due to our immortal state of existence. I have come to see how you were progressing with your life. How are you, Daniel?”

Danny really hated when Vlad called him that and would love nothing more than to throw things and yell at the man to get him out of his home, but the three hours’ power curfew was still evident and would keep him from doing what he wanted and force him to do what was needed.

And right now, he needed to keep Vlad on his good side, long enough for Danny to regain his powers and kick the man to the other side of the states, if not planet.

There was no telling what Vlad had planned for him and if Danny knew him just an ounce, it wouldn’t end good for him. Better to keep him talking, Vlad liked talking – especially about himself.

“Splendid,” Danny retorted drily, trying not to show he was starting to get a little uncomfortably in his thick sweater, now that the humanoid heating element was looming over him – still a head taller than Danny, despite his growing spurt, “without a psychotic ruler and captivity hanging over me every two seconds, life turned out to be incredible easy. I even learned how to sleep at night. Who would have thought? But enough about me - how are you?”

“I see the sarcasm and droll sense of humor hasn’t improved a bit,” Vlad noted tiredly, as if Danny was an onerous child. Danny rolled his eyes at him and Vlad’s eyes darkened a bit, “Daniel, did you just roll your eyes at me?”

Flashbacks of the last time Danny had dared such a feint of rebelliousness, came crushing down with the memory of the punishment that had followed.

Danny saw the little series of events run before his eyes like a movie and from the looks of it, so did Vlad.

_“Daniel, did you just…roll your eyes at me?”_

_Danny regretted it as soon as it had been done, but even though everything told him he was going to regret it, he would rather die than apologies. So he digged his grave a bit deeper._

_“And what if I did?”_

_“Daniel, you know how I feel about your disrespectful antics.”_

_“Probably same way I feel about being kept here and forced to have you fuck –”_

_The hit had come as predicted, but harder than expected. Vlad kept him down on the floor with a hand in his hair and turned ghost in the same beat as Danny._

_The seventeen-year-old was ready to fight him, when Plasmius suddenly pulled his head back for him to stare into those severe red eyes._

_“Don’t make me more angry, than I’m already, boy. Have you forgotten I hold the lives of your sister and friends in my palm?”_

_Danny sneered…but of course Vlad was right, and his leer told that he knew it. Arrogant jerk. Vlad’s expression didn’t alter even when Danny returned to human form and became still under the man’s hand._

_Danny seethed, but said nothing, just watched the halfa with all the spite that had built up during the last five months. A sudden smile superseded Plasmius’ scowl and Danny felt dread roll through him as the man’s voice turned almost tender._

_“I’m surprised you still fight for them, Daniel. It’s been five months and none of your friends has lifted a finger to question why you never wrote back.”_

_“Shut up, you know they have!” Danny snarled and tried to pull his hair free, but Plasmius didn’t let him go that easily._

_“Have they, Daniel? Have they? I read the last letter from the charming Miss. Manson. Apparently, your silence makes her extremely unpleasant on paper.”_

_“She’s just…she,” Danny replied without the right words and Vlad dragged him closer with a growing smile._

_“And not a word from Mr. Foley, he gave up rather fast, and not to speak of dear Jasmine –”_

_“Shut up!” Danny yelled and felt the tears built up on the backside of his eyes._

_“She hasn’t visit once since Christmas. Apparently, her new family is taken up all her precious time. I think there is a lesson for you to learn here, my boy.”_

_Danny stared up at him, “what lesson?”_

_Vlad almost seemed to gain a sort of pity for him, his features soften and the grip in Danny’s hair lessen, “that no matter how much you do for others, no matter how much you sacrifice for those beloved of yours, not a single one of them will ever show you the same loyalty. No one is coming to save you, Daniel.”_

_Danny phased out of his hand and stood with clenched fists, “liar! You kept them from coming here, you wrote those letters and gave them to me! You told Jazz not to drive up here while pregnant! You – I don’t know how, but you made it seem like this! Yo-you’re screwing around with me, you always do!”_

_Vlad stood and continued to watch him with those pitiful eyes, “not even I would go that far, my boy, and honestly…”_

_Danny tensed as Vlad moved and reached to caress him like a riled-up animal, “…deep down you must have realized this by now by yourself. They aren’t coming for you, Daniel. They don’t hold that love for you.”_

_Danny backed away from the hand, from the man and his words. From the truth that had crushed him like a boulder on his chest for months and slowly smothered his heart to the point of breaking._

_“You…you don’t know that,” Danny replied bitter and put up anger as a last defense to protect his soft raw emotions, that threaten to spill over the rim, “you don’t know them like I do! They won’t leave me here with you like this!”_

_“Haven’t they already?” the man asked and added more doubt to the troubled adolescent’s vulnerable heart._

_Vlad had watched him, taken in the blue eyes that had begun to get glassy and the hands that’d started to shake. How Danny had fought to keep himself from breaking right there on the expensive carpet._

_Danny had already abandoned all hope of escaping on his own and Vlad knew he was already beginning to abandon all hope of help from the ones he’d once called trustworthy. Knew the boy was ripe for molding once again._

_A silent fight played out between them in the thick silence. Danny fought not to break down sobbing in front of the man and Vlad waited for just the right moment. He found it and took a step forward._

_“GET AWAY FROM ME!” Danny yelled and hit the man as he embraced him and pushed him against his chest._

_Danny continued to beat, trash and scream at the man, until the curses broke into sobs and the beating fists became weak, without any real power behind._

_Vlad continued to hold him as Danny crumbled in his arms and held him like he was something precious, until the boy’s sorrow left him hollow and empty. Empty for Vlad to fill out the place where love should have been._

Danny laid a hand on Vlad’s chest and pushed him away, slowly but firmly and forced the old scars down. Banished them to the rest of the darkness he had bottled up during his miserable life.

“Why are you here?” Danny asked coldly and lifted his eyes to meet the man’s.

Vlad sighed as Danny broke the moment and began to study the bedroom’s furnishings and decorations, leaving Danny to seethe by the fire, “really, Daniel? Isn’t it obvious?”

Danny opened his mouth to tell the man that he could stick his “obvious” up a place where the sun does not shine, but was interrupted by the phone on the bedside table.

Vlad moved for it, but Danny was faster and pulled the handset to his ear, “Danny Fonten, speaking.”

_“Danny? Hey, man, is something wrong, you sound of?”_

Tucker’s voice was loud enough for Vlad to hear and he sent Danny a look that spoke volumes. Danny felt the great temptation to rat the man out, but thought better of.

If Vlad did something to him with his “obvious”, Tucker didn’t need to get dragged down with him as well.

Danny sent the man a stink-eye, but changed his tone nonetheless, “what? Eh, nothing’s wrong, just woke up and a little up-tight as always, you know.”

 _“Okay,”_ Tucker replied, assured now that Danny hadn’t used any of their safety words in case they couldn’t tell the danger over phone, _“I was just getting up myself and thought of going down to Amaryllis for brunch – you wanna drop by or let me come get you by car like a normal person?”_

On any other day, Danny would have grinned and made a smart-mouthed comeback, but having an old enemy rummage through your personals and threatening to drag you back into hell, was not one of those days.

“Uhm…listen, can I call you back on that offer? I have to…” he looked around for inspiration and found the empty thermos Bertrand had occupied the night before, “…get Bertrand back to the Ghost Zone. He’s still in the thermos.”

Tucker whistled, _“that guy’s going to have some cricks in his neck after spending the night in that thing.”_

Danny smiled darkly. He was pretty sure Bertrand had bigger pains than a crick in the neck after last night, but kept that to himself, “yeah, I should get that problem out of the way before seeing you. I just drop in when I’m done, okay?”

“Sure, Danny – hey I know you said everything’s alright, but I need to ask, are you still worried about Vlad?”

At the mention of his name, Vlad looked up from the group of small framed pictures Danny had placed on his bookshelf and watched Danny with the same intensity as a hawk.

A very hungry hawk.

Danny hide his unease and stared the man down with cold despise, “not really. As you guys said, he’s dead – and even if he wasn’t, he would have to think twice before going up against me. He might discover I’m not a child anymore.”

Danny continued to fight a wordless battle with the man, as they stared each other down and filled the room with thick tension. Tucker grinned, probably thinking Danny was joking around and told him to call him if he decided to stay at home.

Vlad waited for him to put down the handset and end the call, before talking again.

“I’ll assume that Mr. Foley and Miss. Manson isn’t aware of our old trysts?” Vlad noted and took back up the snooping in Danny’s stuff.

Danny scoffed indigitated, “oh my, I had no idea that was your understanding of romance. Now the rape and beatings makes so much more sense.”

Vlad let his things be and returned his focus on Danny with a scowl, “oh stop this incessant whining, Daniel, all this accusing of rape and force is getting old. You may be an immature adult, but even you know what’s between us wasn’t unwilling from your side. Or have you forgotten how you clung to me and offered yourself to me in the night?”

“That wasn’t real,” Danny gritted, “you made me like that, trained me like a dog – that’s not love, Vlad, and you know it. I could never love someone like you, no matter how much you tried to beat it into my mind.”

The man sent him a smug look and moved closer with confident strides, making Danny’s skin crawl with his dominant demeanor and young appearance.

“I know we had a rough start back then and even worse end,” Vlad began with a hush tone that made Danny want to hide and stay at the same time, “but what about the middle, Daniel? Hmm? The dinner parties? The theater and trips to London? The ghost training…was that nothing? It meant a lot to me…”

Vlad had gotten awfully close and the old feeling of his heated core and the familiar smell of his natural scent and cigarette smoke, made it hard to think and Danny was on the edge of falling back into the old acclimatization, that had made him accept the man’s treatment for so many years.

The stage of mind that had made him believe that it was something alike love.

“ _God_ , you’re still insane,” Danny replied nauseate and moved away. Vlad smirked in return.

“It’s not a crime to have a strong effect on others, little badger. I know I can seem cruel and selfish to you sometimes, but even you have to admit that there’s part of me that’s worth admiring. For once, my deep caring –”

“Manipulating,” Danny corrected him drily.

“My debonair side,” Vlad continued as if Danny hadn’t interrupted.

“Fake as a cobber dime.”

“I’m intelligent –”

“More like power-hungry.”

“Ambitious –”

“Just greedy, really.”

“Mannered –”

“’Arrogant’ is the word you’re searching for.”

“And not to say an incredible handsome and powerful otherworldly intertie,” Vlad ended and tapped his chin with lidded eyes, “the only other halfa to exist and therefor the only one to ever survive you, Daniel. Really, it would serve you better to end this grudge and just accept me back into your life. Heavens know it’s going to be a long life for someone fighting the inevitable.”

Danny made a grimace and ducked under the man’s arm to get out of the tight space he had cornered Danny in.

The ghost hunter hated how the man always did that, treated Danny like a passionate lover one moment and his personal slave to use as he liked the next. It was like living one a blade’s edge –never knowing when it would turn on you and cut of a limb.

Danny didn’t need that kind of emotional hell back in his life and if there was one thing he didn’t need; it was Vlad Masters.

“How about we cut the crap and go to the end where you tell me why you’re really here,” Danny spat and made Vlad glare displeased, “we both now you wouldn’t have waited for me to come to you if you’d already found me. You would just have come and fetch me again, like some stray dog – so why are you really in New York, Vlad? What’s here for you other than your need to come toy with me?”

Vlad shook his head like he was disappointed in him and placed his hands on his hips, “I’m hurt, Daniel. Is it really that hard for you to believe that I could have come to see you? That I care for you and your wellbeing?”

Danny just sent him a glare, calling bullshit without a response. Vlad seemed to understand that seven years was far to long for this kind of display and sighed annoyed.

“Fine,” he gave in and dropped the hurt attitude, “I’m here for three reasons actually. First, I arrived here to get you back to my side – where you belong – and to buy the Packers as they are to play this Friday. But most of all, I’m here due to the increasing interest in the state of New York, after hearing some heavy rumors in the Ghost Zone. Apparently, you’ve made this your territory, Daniel.”

Danny raised an eyebrow, “so?”

Vlad watched him with short patience, “well obviously you have no idea about the problem here, must I teach you everything? Very well, by making such a vast and active place your territory, you have also invited every ghost in the zone to come fight you for it. As I so kindly informed you back at your evening lecturer, this has caused an immensely number of ghosts to come here and take up the challenge.”

Danny knew he probably should have been more concerned, but really, he didn’t feel like making a fuss about it.

He just crossed his arms, “well, no matter where you go there will always be places ghosts will cluster around and really, New York was pretty packed with ghosts already before I arrived. At least now ghost come for me before the citizens. I take them down as they come – which means you to, if you don’t make like a tree and leave my territory!”

Vlad ignored his threats after checking his pocket watch – his old one, Danny realized – to make sure they were still hours from the returning of Danny’s powers and smirked taunting, “you really think ghosts like Undergrowth and Hotep RA would come here only to fight for land, Daniel?”

Danny had no idea what he was talking about, of course they were here for his territory – they had even tried to alter the city to their likening before fighting him. So rude.

“If you believe so, you’re gravely mistaken. Ghosts doesn’t come here only for your territory, tempting as it is to take – but to challenge you for revenge or glory.”

Danny scrunched his nose and adjusted his glasses as they had glided down his nose a bit, “what are you talking about?”

“You have been interfering with the balance of the zone’s food chain – or power-chain, if you like,” Vlad explained now more severe and locked his hands on his back in a businesslike manner, “sending ghost to other existence with your portal powers, has caused the zone’s population of more average specters to thin out and allowed other ghosts to become more powerful in lack of competition. As a halfa, you’re already a grand goal for any ghost to defeat and taking over this territory is a thing many ghost desires, because of the large human activity in the area and the talk of one of Sojourn’s pages resting here.”

Danny recognized the name – who wouldn’t remember a strange name like that? – but it took him a little to remember just where he had heard before it and suddenly blinked as it came back to him.

“There’s a page from the ghost wander’s journal is in New York?”

Vlad stopped his rant and turned to Danny with a surprised expression. He hurried to change it into something more decent, but Danny had seen it and knew he had taken Vlad by surprise with his knowledge.

Danny smirked, feeling the situation falling back into his hands.

“I see, so the ghosts think that one of the pages is in my territory? I guess that’s the real reason you’re here, Vlad – like one of those pages for yourself, _don’t you?_ ”

Vlad didn’t seem to fancy his teasing tone and scoffed, “of course I do. The person possessing the pages and collects the journal will be the most powerful entirety in the Ghost Zone and therefor the world. With those pages, I could finally rule as I always have been destined to.”

Danny licked his lips. Ghost writer had never really told him what made those pages so powerful, other than the fact that Sojourn had written down all the sections of the zone and possible a secret or two in his journal.

But could you really rule the world with that journal? Apparently, Vlad knew something he didn’t about this journal and Danny decided to act like he already knew and get Vlad to tell him scots free.

The man always blabbered his planes if you gave him enough time to do so. Vlad was just like that.

Danny blew a raspberry, “yeah, like that would actually work out for you, sorry of I don’t sound too excited about the prospect of living in a possible Vladsevania.”

He was ignored.

“– with that journal and the intellect to decipher it, I could finally find my way into the Elsewhereness and rule its gates.”

“The what?” Danny asked before he could bite his own tongue off and Vlad suddenly watched him with new interest.

Danny scowled as a mocking smile graced the man’s face.

“I see. You don’t know what that is,” she sighed, not in exasperation, but in weariness, “then let me explain. It is said that the journal can lead its finder to the other worlds. To the Elsewhereness and Unworld. Every ghost in existing want to go to the Elsewherenss, Daniel. They would do anything for the chance to get there.”

“Why?” Danny asked, not caring if he sounded short minded or not, this was important somehow and he needed to know more about it.

Luckily Vlad seemed more than eager to let him in on it.

“Well you see, my boy, the Elsewhereness is what you could possible call the heaven for ghosts, if such a term fits. You see the truth is, Daniel, that no ghost knows for certain how to get there. When they die, there is no guaranty that they end up anywhere, but every ghost hopes that they will someday find rest in the Elsewhereness. A land where pain, fear or misery doesn’t exist. A paradise for ghosts. Believe me when I say every ghost to ever exist wants to go there.”

“And... the Unworld?”

“The nightmarish realm. A limbo between earth and the Ghost Zone, it is said to be a world where no ghost or human ability exists. A nightmare in which your will be stuck forever. A place no obsession is ever achieved or laid to rest. Ghost hell, in this case.”

Danny’s eyes widened, now understanding, “by ruling the gates of ghost heaven and hell you could reign the Ghost Zone and with the zone’s help, the world.”

Vlad smirked, “how right you are. And we’re already halfway there.”

“Wait – what?”

“Don’t tell me you never asked yourself where your powers lead the ghosts you make cross over to, Daniel,” Vlad chuckled, “when my powers teleported me to the Unworld the first time, I took some time to examine the place, don’t tell me you never looked through your own portal when leading ghosts into it?”

Danny felt the blood leave his face. Was Vlad serious? He could teleport to such a place with his powers? And Danny could open a portal to –

“No way!” Danny blurt out repulsed, “there’s no way my powers leads to some hell for ghosts – that makes no sense! Why would my powers open up to such a place? It easy to guess why in your case, since you’re an evil cheesehead – but me? I help ghosts when they cross over!”

“Isn’t it obvious? We’re only half-ghosts, Daniel, half-dead, powerful, and yet not belonging anywhere, but the thin line of both the world of living and dead. Is it so hard to believe that if anyone should guard the gateways to a world neither ghost or human can survive in, it would be the creatures that’s the very essence of it?” Vlad asked him slowly and Danny shuddered as he moved closer, Vlad’s shadow falling over him like judgement day.

The old fear of his powers leading to somewhere stray, caught up with Danny in pace with Vlad’s silver tongue. No, Danny had never looked inside the portal that led ghosts away and helped them cross over to something else.

Danny had trusted in it being a good power. All his powers were, why should this one be something as malicious as a portal to ghost hell?

Vlad gave him a curious glance as if to study Danny and his inner meltdown.

“Don’t tell me you’re giving yourself a case of anxiety because of some misplaced ghosts? I thought we had picked that ridicules hero-complex out of you by now,” Vlad asked offhanded, but his voice was just calloused enough to cause a look of dread on the raven-haired man’s face.

“Fuck you,” Danny sneered and pushed Vlad of him, “stop talking about things like that, like lives doesn’t matter! I don’t care what you think and even if my powers would lead to some dark place, neither you or anyone else can stop me from making things right and go there to get them out again! You don’t own me and I don’t have to believe a word that comes from your mouth, you filthy liar!”

He knew he might had crossed a line with the man’s finer temper, but was willing to take any hit with or without powers, as long as he had stood up to the man and made his point. He probably should have kept his mouth shut.

Vlad had always been a man of short temper and if anyone knew the wrath of the man, it was Danny. That’s why he prepared for a fist as the man’s eyes turned red and his body tensed as for a fight.

But what he hadn’t prepared for was the hands to lock around his shoulders, instead of forming into fists to beat him with. A minuscule smirk was all the warning Danny got before…

“ARG! WHAT THE HELL!?” Danny screamed as Vlad teleported them and threw Danny into the darkness.

Danny’s scream gave no echo in the vast space of darkness, but despite his panicked mind, he could still detect that Vlad hadn’t teleported him to somewhere earthly. This darkens wasn’t of his world – or the Ghost Zone for that matter.

No darkness he knew could possibly be this black and still full of shadows.

Tormented faces and groaning voices rang around him as he fell down through the everlasting nothingness and strong despair, hollow pain and hopelessness grabbed his heart like an ominous fist, threatening to squeeze the blood out of him.

Danny choked on his own scream as hands reached out for him, but not to help. He threw his hands up to protect his face as the many cold fingers ran over his skin and left unknown memories of pain and wrongdoings in its wake.

Danny couldn’t manage to get the entire glimpse of these past lives of others, all he got was bits of bits of sensations of death, hunger, hatred, longing, desperation and destress.

“GET ME OUT OF HERE!” Danny managed to scream through this sea of dread and despondency.

The sea of hands and hungry mouths dragged him further down and threatened to drown him alive. No matter how much he fought, kicked or screamed, those desperate hands and teeth wouldn’t let go and their number grew by second.

All air was forced out of him and he gasped for the little oxygen he could get, before fingers could dig into his face and threat to tear his tongue and eyes out.

A sudden explosion of red ecto-energy made the many hands and heads pull back and Danny welcomed the feeling of falling again. Like the angel of mercy, he felt to warm hands grab around his chest and lift him back to the higher point where he had fallen from.

Danny was nothing but a quivering mess in Vlad’s arms and clung to him for dear life.

“Tell me, love,” Plasmius whispered nefarious and almost kissed the shell of Danny’s ear, “even if you could save those ghosts you’ve send here…would you really return to search for them?”

Danny already knew that he wouldn’t. Yes, he was selfless, yes, he had a hero-complex that made him take huge risks to safe others, and yes, he placed other’s lives before his own, even when he shouldn’t.

But the Unworld left no room for return. He could already feel his own core getting pulled to the center of this place, this black hole of nothing and nothing and still everything. Everything dead.

He could never return here and survive it.

“It’s a shame, really,” Vlad continued calm and ruling like some god of the damned, thriving in this place, “all these ghosts and possible humans lost to the eternal nothingness of oblivion. So many stories and knowledge lost forever. None of them can use their powers or leave ever. Only you and me. If I hadn’t suppressed your core, I’m sure you would be able to use your powers in here just like me. An equal by my side in this world of lost. We really must be of another world to rule in a powerful place like this.”

Danny didn’t reply, could only stare down at the bending and twisting mass of inky blackness that ought to be the shadows of former ghosts. Vlad hummed and soothed his hair with a fanged smile.

“I suspect that the Elswhereness must be the sole opposite of this place, maybe even angelic. When we get there after we’ve collected all the pages of Sojourn journal –”

“I’m not going to help you,” Danny whispered, finally able to tear his eyes from the horror beneath and around him, to focus on the man keeping him from falling back in, “I’ll stop you before that happens.”

Vlad’s red eyes narrowed angry, “you will come with me, Daniel, or I tear your little friends apart limb from limb. That’s a promise.”

“And here’s a promise to you,” Danny replied caustic with a scowl, “if you as much as touch a single hair on any of my friends or Jazz’s head for that matter, I will expose you as the freak you are to the whole world and reveal myself as Phantom if needed. Every human in the world will know what you are and hunt you for the rest of your life. And you know I always keep my word, Vlad.”

Vlad was actually taken a bit back by that, “you're bluffing.”

Danny leaned his face closer to the man with a grave expression leaving no room for doubt, “no, I'm not. Phantom is already loved by most and people will accept me as a hero. But if I expose you...well, what do you think the human race would think of that? It would take more than just a decade and hair color to leave that one behind.”

Vlad’s deadpanned expression took a turn for worse as the possible consequences of what his exposed person would come to cost him and Danny closed his eyes per reflex as Vlad teleported them out of the Unworld.

He released Danny as they returned to his small apartment and Vlad took a second to step back and scrutinize the young man he had ones ruled in every prospect.

Danny dusted himself off and watched the man with severity, “you'll be miserable and alone for the rest of your life, always on the run and threatened to be exposed by ghost hunters or worse – _unless_ you call a truce.”

Vlad suddenly scoffed in astonishment and smiled in strange satisfaction, “using your opponent's weaknesses against him? You really have learned something from me after all.”

Danny growled as the man chuckled and Vlad came down from his endorphin trip and cleared his throat, “very well. Truce. What do you propose?”

Danny inhaled slowly, this was his chance, “one – you will leave my sister and friends alone and keep your ghost henchmen out of the city. I don’t like you in my territory either, but can allow it as long as you keep the truce. Two – you will stay out of my life and leave me the hell alone from now one. Three – if you ever sap me with that bloody thing again and take out my powers, I swear, I’ll make you wish that you had died in the ruins of that castle.”

Vlad hummed as if considering his terms and placed his hands in his pockets with a serious attitude.

“That won’t do, I’m afraid,” he replied rigid, “as much as I love your newfound feisty attitude and how ruthless you’ve become, my boy, not even death could keep me from seeking you out.”

His smug demeanor had returned and Danny decided he had liked the nonplussed Vlad a lot more – how to get him back?

Vlad stepped into his personal space and looked down on him with an amused smirk, “I leave your little humans alone, trust that, Daniel, but there is no truce or threat that could make me abandoned you that easy again. Not now that I have felt the burning cold flame of yours again and seen what man you’ve grown to become. If any, this is the perfect opportunity for me to courting you properly, like I should have done all those years ago. Like you always deserved, but I never had the iron will or patience to wait for, little badger.”

“Gross,” Danny quipped cussed, “and forbidden by law in all 48 states as far as I’m concerned.”

“You already know no human law can stop me,” Vlad retorted softly and adjusted Danny’s collar as it had got a bit ruffled up by the trip to the Unworld, “don’t worry, little badger, I will win back your love and make you see.”

Danny pushed his hands away with biting words, “my love was never yours to keep and even if you tried for hundred years, it wouldn’t change a thing.”

Vlad leaned in with lidded eyes and a knowing smile, his scent and core heat engulfing Danny to the point of the sweet unbearable, “ _then hundred years it is.”_

Danny shuttered as Vlad removed himself and turned to go. Danny walked after him uncertain and turned in the hallway to see the man put on his coat and scarf before opening the front door.

“What about the truce, cheesehead?”

Vlad turned his head just the slightest and smirked calmly, “I accept term one and three, but as for number two, there’s no dice, my boy – come see me when you have found reason and in neat of heat. It’s going to be a long winter.”

Danny glared as the man placed a business card on his hallway table and went on his merry way with a chuckle. Danny seethed back in the door and wished to the higher powers that he had his powers, so he could blast the man to small cheese pieces.

“I still hate you!” Danny yelled and slammed the door as hard as he could.

He waited for Vlad’s ghost-signature to disappeared completely, before turning and slide down the door with a heavy sigh. The last hour’s tension and emotionally summersaults, had left him frail and his nerves skinned to thin bloody lines.

The strong demeanor he had kept up for appearance and game, smoldering like grumbling bricks. He buried his face in his hands and felt how they were trembling.

He was still alive.

He was still free

Vlad had left.

He had _left._

Deep down Danny had prepared, if not feared, for this day and now that it had come, he still couldn’t believe that his life hadn’t come to an end, or to an end as it was.

He had fought Vlad back, maybe alone and without his powers, but he had won a victory he could only have hoped to get close to. But sadly, this was far from over. He may had won the battle, but the war had just begun.

Vlad would never give him up.

Danny let out a shaking breath and stared into the hallway out from between the gaps of his fingers. Vlad would return sooner or later and take him.

How, Danny didn’t know, but that was the thing about the man – he never gave up and he never gave a damn about consequences.

“I have to run.”

The words rang down the apartment like a fleeing spirit and Danny sat still for a long time, how long he had no idea, before he suddenly couldn’t bear to wait one second more and leaped to the bedroom.

The old dusty Gladstone bag was pulled out from under the bed and Danny ignored the dust bunnies on his sheets, as he slammed it down on the bed and rushed to his closet to tear down his few sets of cloths and stuff it into the bag.

His few ties and shoes went the same way and he ran back into the living room to phase out the box of money he hid in the wall and grabbed his most beloved books and trickiest from the shelves.

He was hallway closing his bag and writing an apology letter to both Sam and Tucker, when the phone suddenly rang and Danny stared hastily from it to his packet life and back again.

He didn’t have a second to waste if he wanted to get out of town before Vlad found out he’d broken the truce and run, but on the other hand it could be urgent and Danny’s groaned by the difficult decisions that had fallen upon him the last few minutes.

The phone rang a last time and Danny grabbed it before the call would end.

“It’s Danny –”

_“Danny, you have to come quick! This is bad! It’s worse than bad!”_

Danny pulled the handset away from his ear and winced by the high-pitched tone of Tucker’s. He shook his head and placed the phone back on his sore ear with some caution.

“Tucker? What do you mean ‘bad’? What’s happening?”

 _“It’s Sam!”_ Tucker blurred out in panic, _“she has been kidnapped!”_

Danny froze and the handset fell out of his hand. He could faintly hear Tucker call for him, but Danny couldn’t find the will to pick up the thing.

Vlad knew he was going to run.

He had taken Sam.


	20. When did romance get this chaotic?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Penelope Spectra is back, but not alone  
>  _When Spectra arrived to see if the drink had done its work, she found no traces of either Danny or the bags._  
>  _“Seems like he had enough power to make a portal,” she concluded disappointed and sipped her expensive drink, “but overall, I think it is positive that you have been convinced of his powers?”_  
>  _A man dressed in a completely white attire and black fedora stepped out of the shadows and eyed the woman._  
>  _“You did not lie or disappoint, that is a clear atrocity of both human and ghost world, a halfa as you said,” he replied in an orotund voice heavy with a southern accent and send her a cold look, “as promised, you’re in. Welcome to the Gyus in White, Mrs. Spectra."_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile Vlad has his own game going and Danny has a part to play.  
>  _Vlad would never give him up. Vlad would return sooner or later and take him. How, Danny didn’t know, but that was the thing about the man – he never gave up and he never gave a damn about consequences._  
>  _“I have to run,” Danny whispered and ran to pack his bags. The phone rang and Danny grabbed it before the call would end._  
>  _“It’s Danny –”_  
>  _ **“Danny, you have to come quick! This is bad! It’s worse than bad!”**_  
>  _Danny pulled the handset away from his ear and winced by the high-pitched tone of Tucker’s. He shook his head and placed the phone back on his sore ear with some caution._  
>  _“Tucker? What do you mean ‘bad’? What’s happening?”_  
>  _ **“It’s Sam!”** Tucker blurred out in panic, **“she has been kidnapped!”**_  
>  _Danny froze and the handset fell out of his hand. He could faintly hear Tucker call for him, but Danny couldn’t find the will to pick up the thing._  
>  _Vlad knew he was going to run._  
>  _He had taken Sam._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey guys!!!!!!  
> Like that cliffhanger and ominous person from guys in white, we still don't (or maybe you do?) the name of?  
> Stay put and find out  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

The haunting sound of officer Nichols pained groan would have alarmed several staff members and officers at the station, had there been any at this time of night.

The only other people occupying the police station of lower Seattle, was officer Miller, who was busy bickering with his smart-mouthed witness in the next soundproof room and Janice, who was busy on the phone, ordering food for Nichols.

Focused on searching the internet on her laptop, to see if she could find a shop open nearby that could sell her the beer she had been ordered to buy by said officer.

Danny just watched the troubled officer from the other side of the table, calmly and with a somewhat little smile in the corner of his mouth. Nichols had his face buried in his palms, clearly not liking the turn Danny’s life story had taken.

“I take it that you had hoped Vlad had died back in Yorkshire,” Danny snickered and leaned forward to snatch the pack of cigarettes in front of the man.

He tapped the package to get a roll out, as Nichols finally found the strength to look up and end his whining.

“Please tell me he didn’t kill Sam,” he all but begged and Danny placed the cigarette between his teeth, smirking like the possibility of his old sweetheart possible death was nothing but a joke to him.

Nichols guessed it was, cause no matter if Vlad had killed her or not, Samantha Manson would be long dead by this time. Nichols had once read an internet article about the oldest people in the world and her name hadn’t been one of them.

Don’t worry,” Danny soothed with a relaxed pose and blew out a huff of grey smoke, watched the man with calm lidded eyes that seemed to blue to be real, “sweet Sammy-kins lived to be an old woman and used her inheritance to travel the world and worked for many years as a fighter for the environment and peoples right, mostly in Africa and Asia. She settled down in 1956 with a man in Hong Kong and adopted two little Japanese children. I found out through some old records that she had named them Lilith…and Danny.”

Danny stared ahead for a second, scratched his neck and blew another huff of smoke – ignored Nichols eyes, to avoid getting addressed with his sympathy.

“She died in 1971,” Danny continued, “same year as Tucker, funny enough…but while he slept in besides his wife, she was run over by a car on the street. One of those first monster trucks to ever drive on the roads. She hated those things, they were bad for the environment and noisy as fuck. How I know that, is because she wrote an article about banning them…kinda ironic one of the very threats to nature she devoted her life to stop, ended up stopping her. Just stopping…”

Nichols opened his mouth, but Danny held up a hand with lips pressed into a firm line. No tears in his eyes or bursts in his voice, just tiredness, “don’t. I’m fine.”

“Danny…”

“I said I’m _fine_. I knew time would take them from me, I always knew that and I’m over it. They grew old and happy with their families. That’s enough for me.”

Nichols didn’t believe him for a second that he was fine about losing his former girlfriend or best friend, but gave the man his space.

Even though Danny was frozen in the form as a young man and looked like any other troubled late-teen case running away from home, he had to remember that behind that smooth face and bright eyes, an old man was peering out.

You didn’t accuse old men or women of being heartless for wanting to overcome their past and move on. Danny’s past was his own, Nichols just had to remember he wasn’t more than a listener to the life those eyes had witness.

Danny sensed that Nichols wouldn’t take this any further and sighed, as he melted back into his chair. The officer didn’t correct him as Danny placed his boots on the table and balanced on his chair’s two hinter feet.

Danny blew smoke through his nostrils and snapped some of the cigarette ashes into the ashtray on the table.

“So, as I said, Sam didn’t die that day – I couldn’t save her from time or old age, but we did safe her back in 1927.”

“Did Vlad harm her? How did he know you were going to run by the way?” Nichols asked and a sudden crackle escaped Danny. He scoffed, “Vlad? _Tsk_ , he had no idea I was going to bail on him, took my talk of a truce for a real deal. What a joke – we’re a joke. The only two halfas in the world and we can’t even stand being in the same room without getting into a fight.”

Danny suddenly sighed, “have you ever heard of the purple-back gorilla?”

Nichols shrugged, “can’t say I have.”

“Figures. It wasn’t anything big, but it was a case of Central Park Zoo in 1926. Sampson was one of the only two gorillas of his special species left, both males,” Danny elaborated and waved with his cigarette as he explained, “during a fight with a ghost, I got into his cage and discovered by chance, that Sampson wasn’t a male, but female – as a result, she got sent to Japan, to join the cage of the only other purple-back gorilla in the world, in hopes that they would have offspring and save their kind.”

Danny sniffed drily and sent the man a tired glance, “it made me think about me and Vlad, you know. We may not have any chance of populate the world with little halfas, or whatever, but we’re still the only two of our kind. Had we been animals, people would have been heartbroken to find that the only two of an extinct race couldn’t get along for one second.”

Nichols lid his own cigarette and handed Danny a new one, as he had finished his first, “maybe, but you two were heartily extinct.”

“Guess, ya right,” Danny replied and allowed the old man to lid his cigarette with a lighter and leaned back in his seat with a grunt, “but I don’t think we’re impossible to kill either – just hard to crush, like cockroaches, you know what I’m saying?”

“Well, both of you survived radiation,” Nichols joked and Danny cracked a smile and pointed to the man in good manner.

“I knew you were the right man to tell this story to, you get it.”

“Speaking of story,” Nichols reminded and checked his wrist to see the time, “I think you said something about Sam being kidnapped?”

Danny stared up at the celling, eyes following a line of wires, “yeah, she had been kidnapped. I found Tucker back at her house, where her parents were freaking out because of a letter they had received. Of course, I thought it was Vlad, because of our _little talk_ back at my place – funny how I made everything revolve around him, back then when I claimed to hate him so much – anyway, all thoughts of Vlad being behind this went down the drain as it turned out the kidnappers didn’t want me, but cash. Just some humans wanting a ransom for her life. Simple as that.”

“How much?”

“To much,” Danny scoffed and stubbed his cigarette, “looking back at it, that kinda money would have been nothing today, but back then it was outrageous and showed that the people we were dealing with knew exactly how much money the Manson family was made of, which was suspicious, but not a given. It could have been a banker handling their papers, or someone knowing Mr. or Mrs. Manson’s habits of spending. A valet of their house even. As said, it wasn’t a given who had taken her and we needed some help to get to her back before the deadline ended.”

Nichols scratched his chin in thought, “did you tell Tucker about Vlad or did you keep it to yourself?”

Nichols could understand if he had, not wanting to put his friend in danger or share this with anyone, but to his surprise Danny nodded.

“Yeah, I told Tucker about Vlad – and later Sam. Couldn’t take anymore secrets like that and knowing Vlad, he would probably show up and go full drama queen, not caring if they knew he was alive or not. I finally realized it was easier to let them know he was back, than keep it to myself,” Danny admitted and smiled sheepishly, “besides, the first thing I did as I got his call, was to yell that Vlad had taken her. The letter made it all a little embarrassing, but Tucker had been eager to follow my train of thoughts and believe it was all a scheme Vlad had made up to make himself seem innocent on this one. But really, it wasn’t him and we were just wasting time.”

Danny cringed and put down his cigarette, “we found him at the hotel and tried to make him confess. He had no idea what we were talking about, but he offered to help us on one condition.”

Nichols waited for the rest and lost patience, “which was...?”

Now it was Danny’s time to groan painfully, “I had to go on a date with him.”

   
 

 _Year 1927, a restaurant, New York, USA_

_**“I had to go on a date with him.”**_  

   
 

 

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Danny whispered dreadfully and stared at the restaurant from the car.

Tucker pushed his red fedora up and offered Danny a sympathetic grimace.

“Sorry, man, but just remember we’re doing this for Sam, okay?”

“ _We?_ ” Danny asked and eyed the other male.

Tucker put his hands up, “okay, _you_ are doing this for Sam – but don’t forget that I’m keeping this heavy burden of a secret for you, man. I’m going to the grave with this.”

Danny sighed, wanted to phase down into the core of the earth and just die in his shame.

Vlad hadn’t been subtle as he made his demands back at the hotel and Danny would never live down the face of horror Tucker had made, as he had come to understand that Vlad was being serious.

Danny could only imagine what realizations the other was connecting in that brain of his, but he appreciated that Tucker hadn’t turned his back on him for being a Nancy.

“Thanks, Tuck,” Danny replied and Tucker placed a hand on his shoulder.

“No need. Listen I don’t care if you’re playing polo on both teams and going in there to –”

“I’m not.”

“– or he has used you like that. All I’m saying is that you’re my best friend and I won’t look at you differently because of this. I won’t tell Sam or anyone ever.”

Danny had to take a second to just understand the treasure that was the man besides him.

He turned to Tucker with glassy eyes and could only offer a grin of relief to hide the tears, “you’re the best, you know that right?”

Tucker just padded his back and grinned to ease up the emotional atmosphere, “damn right I am, you better believe it and if I have to be honest, I’ve kinda always known that ghost powers weren’t the only thing that made you special – hell if I was a curious man, I would’ve hit on you to.”

“Gross, time to go,” Danny added and stepped out of the car, he leaned into the window with a more solemn face, “if it gets to a fight, just be ready with charged guns. I don’t know if he will keep his promise or not, but we should be ready for backstab and take him down if needed.”

“If you say so, I be here waiting for trouble,” Tucker replied with a firm nod. Danny turned to leave, but then turned back again.

“Listen, I doubt that Vlad will behave just because you two are watching. If I don’t get the chance to explain things to Sam before Vlad makes a move on me, would you try and tell it to her gently?”

“Sure,” Tucker promised and sent Danny a winner smile, “now go in there and seduce the garters of him, Don Juan.”

Danny made a face of disgust and pulled Tucker’s fedora down his grinning face. He waved as his partner in justice drove off to park the car nearby and turned back to the front of the expensive restaurant Vlad had told him to meet him at.

At least the man had named a public place and not somewhere private. Or insisted on picking him up himself. Being caught in a tight space with the man was the least of Danny’s favorite things to do and Vlad had never been scared of taking advantages of him in a car.

Danny winced by the rush of old memories and adjusted his best suit.

He hadn’t cared for dressing up – and especially not for someone like Vlad! – but Tucker had made a point about the dress code of this restaurant and the last Danny needed was to make a scene at the front of the restaurant and have Vlad come help him get past the receptionist, like some damsel in distress.

The only consolation about this was the fact that Sam had given him this expensive tuxedo on his last birthday, and he was doing this for her and no one else.

Except Tucker maybe.

His friends support and understanding had filled him with the confidence he had needed and he thanked the heavens that he had come across both Tucker and Sam back in the days. There was no telling where he would be today without them.

He had doubted them at one point as they had stopped writing to him during Vlad’s imprisonment, but the last two years had washed all doubts of him and left him clean. In the end, he would do anything for them.

And going on a date with his rapist was one of them apparently.

Danny felt like a fraud as he stepped into the expensive place, but the receptionist in front of the restaurant only sent his tailored attire and correct jelled hair one look, before smiling brightly and taking his name.

“Mr. Fonten, right this way, sir. Mr. Masters is already seated and awaiting them,” the man chimed and lead the way to the table.

To Danny’s dread, it was a more intimately table behind two huge palms in pots and would hid from the rest of the restaurant, both visible and soundly, since it was closer to the scene, than the bar.

Two charleston dancers were entertaining with lively music and the smoke of Cuban cigars was filling the grand room with a thick veil of grey. Smelling expensive.

Everything in this place seemed to be built in glass and diamond – an intricately designed that had become immensely popular in the higher class and Danny already missed the more casual bars and diners he visited with his friends after work.

Danny had been raised and taught how to act in the presence of grand wealth, because of his mother and later Vlad, but walking into a place like this made him feel painfully inferior.

He ignored the peering eyes that followed him and tried to fall back into his old act of staying aloof to such attention. It turned out surprisingly easy to play the rich heir again and Danny even offered a smirk to a young lady that had sent him a lidded smile on the way to his table.

He first came down from his bubble of confidence, as the trip through rich-land came to an end and he was meet with the epitome of confidence. Vlad’s smirk was no act. It was just as real as the nausea that gathered in Danny’s guts.

   
 

Vlad Masters believe himself to deserve only the best things in life.

Men of his standard was born with the claim and understanding of it – really the only one’s noble enough to fully appreciate the finer things to the fullest, with the needed knowledge and taste for it.

Things like molded dark vine, inherited luxury, the latest technology, young pretty souls trained in the arts of pleasure, freshly rolled cigarettes from groomed tobacco plants and only the best of quality material.

It held no importance whenever it was food, cloths, living or cars, was the life that any gentleman like himself should be able to enjoy to the fullest.

And Vlad had.

Oh had he lived to the fullest. But as so many others like himself before him, he had hit the point where boredom had caught up with him.

It was hard finding a cure for such nonsense and often it would take something immensely unique to give one back the will of life, when nothing seemed to thrill one anymore, despite all the possibilities and open door.

Maddie Fenton had been such a thing.

Vlad had taken the trip to London in boredom and hope that Jack Fenton could offer something interesting with his little occult projects, but the truly interesting thing hadn’t been the huge monstrosity of a portal in the basement, but the curious woman, who had insisted on shaking his hand, rather than let him kiss it as it was custom.

Vlad had never meet a woman like her before and at first, he had been wary of her shameless act, but soon grown fond of this curious creature that demanded to stand as his and Jack’s equal.

Attraction had soon filled him and he had started to set his eyes on her as a new goal, despite the fact of her marriage to Jack. Vlad had found something new and when he found something he liked, he always got it in the end.

The accident had been a setback. Many things had been a setback and for seven years Vlad had tasted the less finer things in life and been forced to live through humiliations, pain and regrets.

He had for a time believed he would die and come to appreciate the smaller things – things he wouldn’t have offered a second thought before the accident and only scoffed at, should anyone had pointed them out to him.

The taste of water, the feeling of a breeze, the calm of knitting, running a hand through long hair, football nots in the newspapers, the scent of tea, a game of chess and the winters of Wisconsin.

Vlad never became still, but he didn’t return to his former existence of a timed man hiding behind money either. The days of proving himself and trying to be something, was behind him as a new Vlad Masters left the hospitals to walk the earth in his place.

Vlad Plasmius had proven to be a soul of endless confidence and with real power running through his veins, he never had to prove himself ever again.

No matter where he went, people seemed to know that this was a man they shouldn’t stand in the way of and those who didn’t move, only served as warning for others when he was done with them.

Vlad knew that the accident had changed him, but he welcomed the changed. Jack had already died for his sins and left Vlad with the choice of either counting himself damned or embrace the endless possibilities his new ghost-half could offer him.

He had chosen to embrace Plasmius and follow the path that was laid open before him.

And Daniel was a part of this path.

Vlad had felt Daniel’s ghost-signature the second he’d neared the restaurant and felt a smile tug the corner of his lips.

Had they really been separated for almost a decade? To Vlad it felt like yesterday the boy had turned his world upside down and wrecked his castle and life, with nothing but the power of his voice.

Daniel was a powerful being and Vlad had all forgotten this in his own triumph.

Keeping Daniel as a pet had been a mistake. Vlad knew that now. He had known the stubbornness of the boy from the start, but dismissed it as something he could control with a little training and grooming.

Thought he could have reigned the wild creature of pure power that was his soulmate and bring him to his side with harnesses. It had been a mistake, not lasting and all too hastily made from his part.

Daniel was a delicate soul, someone he should have handled with slow ease and not tried to suppress with sheer force. Vlad had often rolled their relationship over and over again in his head to pinpoint what he had done wrong.

After years of thoughts, he had finally realized it – their relationship had ended badly, because he had started it badly. Breaking Daniel with the purpose of molding him to something greater, had been the sole mistake of all this.

Where he had fought with the boy to make him still under his palm, he should have followed all the twist and curved with his hands and tried to lead it his way.

For a long time, Vlad had forgotten what the old Daniel had been like. The one he had been able to settle by his side with trust after exposing his ghost-half and the promise of simple guidance.

That Daniel had been a fallible, but faithful companion. Daniel had been a vivid loving boy at that time. Full of bravery, jocularly and oh so charming in his own defying and naive ways.

After Vlad had taken him to bed and locked him in place, removed him from his normal environment and tried changing his way of viewing the world with force, the boy had lost something. Something essential.

Vlad had slowly felt how… _off_ Daniel had become over the years, but looked the other way in hope that Daniel would regain his old spirit back, as soon as he had grown into the potential of their reunion.

Vlad had been relieved to see the sudden change in the young man’s demeanor at the end of their relationship, but known something wasn’t quite right.

The game of cat and mouse had proved to be an entertaining game, but couldn’t go one, as Daniel’s victory would have meant the end of them and Vlad couldn’t accept that.

Admittedly, giving orders to kill Jasmine had been a bit excessive, but the boy hadn’t needed to crush the castle like that.

Vlad had phased out of the ruins three days after, drained and weak, but strong enough to realize the outcomes of this and made haste to leave the ruins and make his preparations.

The “Dalv” identity had been made many years ago and had been prepared for when he reached an age suited for a fixed accident, that would allow him to live on as an immortal, without losing his fortune.

A similar one had been prepared for Daniel as well, but that would have to wait until he’d found the little brat again. Vlad had finally found him after a longer search, after some ghosts had mentioned a "ghost-man" owning the territory of New York and Vlad had found a picture in the newspapers of said city.

As said, Vlad liked the finer things in life and if Daniel wasn’t one, Vlad didn’t know what was.

The boy had grown, not quite a man, but close and Vlad had found himself grown proud of the power that seemed to just ooze of the simple black and white picture.

The boy had grown into pure attraction like Vlad always had known he would. Daniel had always been scrawny, but now he had come to possess a fine paragon frame, a powerful yet graceful appearance to the eye and a braze but still humble demeanor.

The features and bright eyes behind the glasses showed great intelligence, but had still room for potential and more to learn.

It had annoyed Vlad to see that Daniel had let his hair fall back down into his eyes, instead of gelling it back like Vlad liked it, but he guessed it was a part of his old boyish charm and suited Daniel in a sweet way as an adult.

What Vlad didn’t understand the brink of though, was the fact that Daniel had gone from knowing how to put together a perfectly stylish attire, to end up dressing like a raggedy urchin. Clearly in the need of a well-respected tailor with a wealthy benefactor behind him.

And lucky for the boy, Vlad was that man.

He was pleased to find that his little badger had taken the time to dress up correctly for this date of theirs.

He could almost believe they’d never left the old circle of theirs, as Daniel stepped into sight in a stylish black single button dinner jacket with black satin front and the matching white west and butterfly such a display needed.

Daniel had even left the glasses at home and jelled his hair back, the perfect image of a gentleman, just as Vlad had raised him to be.

The young man scowled as Vlad rose from his seat to greet him – a custom men normally only did in the presence of a lady, but in many ways, Daniel was like a spouse to him and he would treat him as such, as a part of his new plan to win back the heart of his little badger.

The receptionist made a move to pull out the chair for Daniel, but the man was faster and seated himself before ripping of his white gloves and discard them at the table in a messy heap.

The old receptionist was clearly a little surprised by this lack of tact, but tried not to show and promised to send a waiter their way before leaving.

Vlad could only smile. Back in the days, he would have scolded and possible punished Daniel for such a tasteless performance, but now he couldn’t get enough of his lively temper. Vlad had utterly missed this feisty brat.

“Whatcha grinning at, Cheesehead?” Daniel asked and grabbed one of the breadsticks from the tables decorations.

Vlad tilted his head as Daniel began to chew on his snack with a sour expression.

Vlad chuckled, “I was just wondering if you would show up in a dress or not. If any, this would be the occasion for your lovely disguise to return from the closet.”

Vlad hadn’t thought it possible, but the man’s scowl deepened drastic. He had almost forgotten how amusing it was to rile up the little halfa.

“And I was wondering if you were going to be a pompous jerk and act all creepy in public, but I see you at least put up a fake forest to cover up that nasty habit of yours. And speaking of habits –If you place your foot in my lap, I will break it.”

Vlad just laughed at that and they both dropped the conversation as the waiter stepped through the path between the palms. They both picked up their menu and tried to settle on an order.

“We’ll take the oysters with champagne for starters and claret with the lamb in mint sauce,” Vlad began and made the waiter take notes, as he listened their choice of first, second and third course, “end it with the selection of chees and a sweet sauterne.”

Daniel sent him a look that promised problems, “and since I’m not that lunatic’s property and this is a free country, I’ll have the hors d'oeuvre instead and roast turkey in cranberry sauce for second. I don’t like cheese, so bring me lemon cake. I’ll drink lemonade for the courses and a Gin rickeys for the dessert.”

The pressed waiter remade his list of meals to get the now separate orders and bowed before leaving them quickly.

“I see you have grown a pair, Daniel,” Vlad noted amused and Daniel scoffed drily.

“Yeah, I guess that makes one of us,” he replied snide and took a rudely large bite of his breadstick, not caring about the crumbs on his jacket or good table manners, “so how are you going to find Sam exactly? Do you have some kind of contacts that might know where to find her captors, or are you going old fashion ghost style on this?”

Vlad collected his finger tips and leaned forward on his elbows, “you really should think more of what kind of people you’re associating with, my boy. First, I find you drugged during a party and now your former flirt had been foolish enough to get herself into trouble? Poor company if you ask me.”

“Okay, first of, Sam isn’t some 'old flirt',” Daniel defended angry and pointed at him with the breadstick, “she was my _girlfriend_ and are one of my best friends, so watch it – second, we both know you were the one to drug me back at Mrs. Capster’s mansion, so who is now poor company?”

“Oh, really?” Vlad asked amused, “if I hadn’t stepped in and teleported you home, you may had found yourself in some serious trouble by now, Daniel. Really you should be thankful that I saved you from whatever person who drugged you that night. I suspect one of those young men trying to approach you, taking you for a helpless young woman.”

“I’ll be thankful the day you’ll be five feet under,” the younger halfa scoffed and narrowed his eyes, “and don’t give me that crap, we both know I can’t trust a word that comes out of your mouth, so just shut it.”

“Then why are you here?” Vlad asked, genuinely interested of the man’s way of thinking, “if my person is so distrustful, then why accept my help at all?”

Daniel looked away, a known sign of weakness and discomfort from his side, something he often showed when Vlad asked him of something personal that he didn’t want to explain, because it made him vulnerable in the man’s presence, or gave things away that Daniel preferred to keep to himself.

Vlad already knew the man was lying before he opened his mouth.

“I came here because I need to find Sam. You might be a jerk, but in this case, you could be a useful jerk and maybe show that you aren’t completely useless for a change.”

Vlad just hummed, already closer to understanding two things.

One – Daniel’s relationship to this gloomy woman wouldn’t be a hindrance for him, since Daniel only seemed to held feelings based on comradeship towards her at this stage – and two, now he knew that Daniel still felt the old need to rely on him.

If Daniel had truly despised him – as he so passionately claimed to do – not even his friend’s disappearance would have made him succumb to take the offer of Vlad’s help.

He suspected that Mr. Foley’s influence might be somewhere in the weight bowl of this decision as well, but mostly this was Daniel’s own wish to accept his help. Daniel didn’t trust his words, but trusted that he would keep his word to him.

_Interesting._

The waiter returned with their first course and Vlad watched his former protégé and lover, as he took a large sip of his served lemonade, not bothering to wait for Vlad to get his own glass filled.

The waiter seemed abased, but tried not to let it show and returned to the rest of the restaurant. Vlad smiled as Danny wolfed down his own plate, while Vlad took his time with his oysters and hummed in satisfaction by the strong taste of sea, pepper and lemon.

“So tell me, Daniel,” he began and took a sip of his champagne, “I saw you didn’t have a piano in your apartment, how is that?”

The raven-haired man sighed annoyed by the sudden invitation of small talk, but apparently decided to humor him, rather than ignore him altogether.

“I don’t have time or money for one, why do you even care?” Daniel asked accusing, stuffing himself with another hors d'oeuvre.

Probably imagine it was Vlad’s head or something else lethal.

Vlad put down his empty shell and cleaned his hands with a napkin, “I remember you was quite lovely by the piano, I never understood why you suddenly stopped playing back then. Oh well, I’ll have one sent to you, but perhaps you will need more room. How does a mansion on East Egg sound to you? I can have all your things moved by Monday, it’s really no problem.”

“It’s a problem if it’s coming from you,” Daniel replied scornfully and used the back of his hand to dry his mouth instead of the napkin, “and I don’t play anymore and most of all not for _you_. If you try and move me or sent me weird stuff, I’ll trash it or throw it through your window at four pm.”

“Don’t be difficult, Daniel, it doesn’t suit you as an adult.”

“Having no beard doesn’t suit you either, old man.”

“Hmm, I had no idea my facial hair meant that much to you, if you like I will let it grow back and color it black like the rest,” Vlad purred and felt the oysters beginning to get to him.

He had planned for Daniel to join him on that stimulating course, but he supposed the salmon and saffron in the hors d'oeuvre would do.

Daniel made a sound of disgust, “hair color is for girls, Vlad.”

“And so is dresses, but you looked marvelous in that golden flapper dress – maybe I should add a more feminine touch to your wardrobe, hmm?”

Daniel leaned forward with cold narrow eyes, “fuck you.”

Vlad wasn’t going to let that get to him and just smirked, “as much as your eagerness pleases me, I would prefer for us to have a nice dinner first, my dear.”

Daniel sighed and fell back into his chair, before massaging his temples.

“You have no idea how much I hate you, do you?” Daniel asked tiredly, but Vlad took notice of the missing venom in his voice.

“Do you have any idea how much I missed your passion?”

The younger halfa groaned in annoyance and didn’t even try to hide his exasperation from the waiter, who had returned to serve the next course.

As a continuing theme of the evening, Daniel attacked the food of his plate like it going to get away and Vlad had long since concluded that this was all a show for him alone.

He had seen Daniel from a distance the last few weeks between his hunt for the pages and knew that Daniel was more than capable of eating properly at a table.

In a strange sense, Vlad guessed he should be flattered by the great effort Daniel was putting into getting on his nerve. Like a child trying to get attention by being difficult. Said child send him a nasty look.

“If by being passionate, you mean feeling the need to hit you with a shovel and put you back in your grave, then you’re probably right,” Daniel replied icily and decided he didn’t need a knife to eat his turkey with and just eat the meat right from the fork in chunks.

“So cold. I must say leaving me back in England was rather heartbreaking of you, Daniel. But I suppose you thought me dead at that time. Irrational as that is.”

“Are you shitting me? You deserved every last brick that hit your ugly face,” Daniel seethed and ignored the chatter of his fork hitting the china, as he leaned forward with a sneer, “you deserved to die in that ruin, to be ruined like that – you _ruined_ me. You hurt me, you beat me and you raped me. I was just seventeen, what kind of monster rapes a seventeen-year-old kid, Vlad? Can you honestly sleep at night?”

“I must admit it have proved harder to sleep at night,” Vlad admitted, but not the least remorseful, “I’ve missed the feeling of you sleeping next to me. It’s not quite the same without you clinging to me at night, Daniel. And honestly, being seventeen isn’t a child’s age, my boy. The society might frown upon pederasty, but in the great time of the Greek philosophers, it was common and highly acceptable. Really, love has no sex, Daniel. And can you honestly say that you didn’t felt pleasure back then? Can it really be wrong if you enjoyed it? Loved it?”

Daniel just stared at him, opened his mouth but then closed it again and shook his head, “how do you do that?”

“Talk reason?” Vlad asked and prepared to prolong the speech of his case, but Daniel stopped him with a fist slamming down on the table. Making several guests turn their heads.

“You know what I mean or maybe you don’t, I have no idea anymore,” Daniel sneered through gritted teeth, keeping it low to avoid the guest to listen in, “make the years of abuse seem like something I wanted? How can you look at me and call that love? You don’t know what love is. What you did wasn’t _love._ ”

“Daniel,” he replied firmly and leaned forward to take his hand.

Daniel tried pulling away, but Vlad was faster and pulled him in, “I know our past relationship had…its faults, but what I did, I did out of necessity. I did it out of love and sometimes love makes you do things that doesn’t seem reasonable to the beholder at first. If my love for you can’t persuade you to return to me, then think of the things I could offer you. We’re the only ones of our kind, no other can live by your side without dying of age or accident. I know things about our kind, my boy, things I still need to teach you. An inheritance that still belongs to you.”

“Forget it!” he younger male hissed and fought to get his hand out of his grasp without phasing it and alarming the watching guest, “you can’t buy me and I know all I need to know.”

“Are you sure? I know you have questions, burning uncertainties just longing to be answered, secrets,” he whispered and leaned in to whisper in Daniel ear, “like why you’re always cold in the winter.”

“Stop it! I don’t care what you know – I won’t return to you and I won’t let you manipulate me again into something that I’m not. I’m not like you!”

Vlad could only grin by the sight of how frantic his former lover had turned, clearly eager to run and hid his emotions and doubts from his knowing gaze, “does it frighten you, Daniel? To know that I’m right and you will one day have to accept the truth despite all your efforts?”

“God, I can’t stand you, you crazy fuck!” Daniel snarled as he tore his hand free and stood.

Vlad stayed seated and watched him calmly, “you can keep refusing me, Daniel, but all I am and everything I possess will be yours whenever you like it or not. I am part of you as much as you are part of me. All I do is for you in the end.”

Daniel turned to him with venomous eyes, as green as freshly cut emeralds, “you want to rule the world, right? Was that all for me to?”

Vlad held his eyes with heavy intensity, “I wouldn’t have anyone else by my side.”

“Then have fun being lonely on that mountain,” Daniel dismissed and went to leave.

“I love you.”

Daniel stopped and for a second Vlad believed him to have come to his senses and maybe decided to return to him, but instead, Daniel grabbed the table and flipped it to the side to stand in front of him. Making the rest of the restaurant gasp and turn in astonishment with loud chatter.

“Don’t you ever say that to me. _Ever!_ ”

Vlad stood slowly, towered over the other and felt the urge to kiss this wild thing, but knew better of it. Daniel wouldn’t take it lightly at this rate.

“Then I’ll wait until you confessed those words yourself,” he replied quietly.

Daniel just shook his head in wrathful awe, “then you will wait forever.”

Vlad watched him as Daniel stormed out the restaurant, leaving him alone in the mess that was his anger and resentment.

He ignored the waiters coming to clean up the mess and knew he had money enough to make this seem like it never happened and buy every last of the guest digression if needed.

For now, he only had eyes for Daniel.

“I’m a patient man, my love,” he whispered, knowing that only Daniel’s ghost hearing would catch it.

Neither he or Danny noticed the two white clad agents at the northern table.


	21. Red is the new Green – and other things gone wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny went on a date with Vlad to make an alliance, but parted as enemies.  
> Meanwhile Sam is still somwhere out there. And Danny miss her in more than one way.  
>  _"Mrs. Capster, please, this is inappropriate.”_  
>  _“Why?” she asked and turned his head back with a gentle hand, “because I’m older than you? Or because there’s someone else in your life? That woman you work with –”_  
>  _“Sam and I are just friends,” Danny sighed, “we had a relationship, but we ended it months ago. Mrs. Capster –”_  
>  _“Penny,” she reminded him with an understanding smile, “say, Danny, I’ve only known you for a short time and most I know is through the papers that writes about you, but something tells me you’re a man with a lot of trouble weighting down your heart…what is troubling you, Danny?”_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!!!!  
> I'm back with more Danny/Vlad action for ya and even more drama!  
> In this chapter the radio plays the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpWXAWLAwRo  
> Hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, Sam Manson’s apartment, New York City, New York, USA_

“There gotta be some clue or way of finding out, we haven’t thought of yet!” Tucker insisted and Danny sighed besides him on the couch. 

Sam’s apartment had been turned upside down since yesterday and become the headcounters of the police investigation. 

Mr. and Mrs. Manson was seated in the kitchen where they were currently talking to the investigators, trying to run a list of all the enemies they or Sam could have. 

Danny watched with building angers as two police officers was rummaging through Sam’s stuff and handling it poorly or with no care at all. 

“Could you guys cut that out?” Danny asked as they had stated to ruffle up her collection of books. 

“Just sit tight, you two are up next,” officer Weston warned and Danny sent his rival a look clearly stated his opinion about the man’s authority. 

After the failed date with Vlad – not that Danny had ever seen it as something like that – he and Tucker had decided that the other halfa wasn’t worth it and returned to Sam’s apartment to search for clues themselves. 

They had barely walked through the door before chief Weston had put them in handcuffs and ordered them to stay put, since they now were now number one suspects on the list. 

Tucker and Danny had found that highly unlikely and tried to explain just how stupid that suspicion was, but as always, the dear chief found Danny guilty of all his problems and if he could nail Danny for his own friend’s disappearance, Wesley Weston would be a complete man. 

“If Sam gets hurt because of you, I’m going to haunt you for the rest of your stupid life,” Danny sneered and Wes narrowed his eyes in equal resentment. 

“I bet you thought you could kidnap her and get her money, since you couldn’t get them through marriage. Ghosts always held grudges and obsessions, or isn’t that what you teach people?” 

Danny growled and Tucker sent the chief a sour look, “listen, I get that you don’t like us because we make the police look like a joke, but is this really the time for acting childish? Sam could be in great danger for all we know. Danny and I could help a great deal.” 

“Or ruin my investigation as you always do,” Wes replied drily and scoffed, “so where do you keep her? In some ghost lair in the other world perhaps?” 

Danny sulked and ignored the man’s questions as he tried to crack this case himself. They had already crossed Vlad of the list and Danny was pretty sure, that if a ghost had been involved, he would have been warned on a ghostly level by now. 

The ransom letter had been made from letter cut out of magazines, looking pretty humanmade to Danny. But other than some men from the government that didn’t like women talking about voting, then who would have a grudge against Sam? 

Most didn’t even know she was political active, as she always kept her identity hidden, even from her own fellow protesters. Just who would know about the exact amount of her heritage and kidnap a woman like her? 

“Have you any ideas?” Danny asked Tucker quietly, letting the police officer rant above them and not draw any suspicious. 

Tucker stretched his soft lips to a firm line, voice unsure, “not sure, I’m beginning to see why they think we could be the suspects. Most of the clues leads to a person that knew her and how much she was going to inherit. Maybe a person of hers that we don’t know of?” 

“We should start check her stuff for clues, but where to start?” 

“And how to get out of this?” Tucker added and nodded in Wes direction and rattled his cuffs. 

“Leave that to me,” Danny whispered and phased out of his own cuffs. Tucker kept a straight face, as Danny moved his hands behind them to Tucker’s and phased his cuffs of as well. 

It would be easy to just phase them both out of the wall and escape, Danny had no problem using his powers in front of Weston – no one believed him anyway, it was actually quite stunning – but there were five other officers in sight and today was not the day for the people of New York to learn that Fonten and Phantom was the same person. 

Instead, Danny blinked to Tucker and made an invisible duplicate phase outside the apartment. 

The officers looked up in surprise as a car was thrown across the street. Half of the officers had already run for the door to investigate the phenomena, before Weston could realize what was happening and caught the sight of Danny’s grinning face. 

“Come back! It’s Phantom creating a distraction – come back god dammit!” 

“Bye, bye, baby,” Tucker grinned as Danny waved and phased them both through the floor. 

Wes swore heated and ran for the stairs to the basement. He ran down into the cellar used for storage and searched around in blind anger, before the click of the door was heard behind him. 

Danny and Tucker smirked in unison as the chief banged and cursed behind the locked door and Danny placed the key in a plant next to the door as they moved back to the living room. “Okay, if I were Sam, where would I keep special friend material?” Tucker wondered out loud and looked around. 

Danny scratched his chin and decided it was time to shave again. 

“Not sure, but when we were in Boarding school, she would hide things in the stuffing of her bed – I don’t think the police has rummaged through it yet.” 

They moved past the kitchen without alarming the people occupying it for investigation talking and sneaked up to Sam’s large bedroom. Danny felt himself relax by the old familiar scent of Sam’s sheets, plants and paint. 

Sam had never really cared for ladylike behavior of kept a housemaid, which allowed her bedroom to fall into a light mess most of the time. Tucker started to search the mattress for hidden clues and Danny touched different things in a mix of search and melancholy. 

Sam and Danny had always had a thing for each other, but hid it behind their friendship back at their time in boarding school. 

Only after the long separation and his return to the states after they had believed him dead, had he found the courage to ask her out and she had been more than eager, despite his fear of her finding out she wasn’t his first. 

During his time on the run, Danny had believed himself to not being worthy of love. That if he found someone to settle down with, his past would somehow catch up with him and expose him. Show that he was a man used like a woman and hollow inside. 

He hadn’t believed himself to be worthy of Sam. Keeping secrets and something as this from her wasn’t something that belonged in a healthy relationship. He had been close to tell her, but she had stopped him even before he could open his mouth. 

Said she didn’t care what or who had done during their separation, as long as he was fully with her now. Danny had accepted that condition eagerly, more than willing to pretend that his past didn’t matter as long as they were together in the present. 

Their time together had been sweet and held that normalcy that Danny never had known, but needed. 

It had seemed natural for them to be an item, but with time, both he and Sam had descended from the fumes of young love and found that they both had preferred their former relationship. 

There hadn’t been any hard feeling between them as Danny moved into his own apartment and with the help of their fellow best friend, they had returned to the former state of best friends. 

Danny missed it sometimes, but in most ways, he was just happy that he had gotten the chance to experience this with her. 

Living like a normal man and loving like an average person. 

It had been a part of her kindness, but now he had to pay it back somehow and find her before the deadline tomorrow tonight. 

“Hey, Danny,” Tucker began and Danny turned to him as he caught the strange tone of his voice, “didn’t Sam say that she’d stopped see her fiancé?” 

Danny moved to him and the stuffed animal, that Tucker had ripped open. Apparently, it had been filled with letters. Danny eyed the knife in Tucker’s hand. 

“She’s going to kill us when she finds out we skinned her black teddy bear.” 

Tucker shrugged, “I’ll sew it back up, she’s never going to find out – anyway, try and read this stuff. Something could seem that good ol’ Elliot has his clams in the shallow waters.” 

Danny took the little bundle of letters Tucker handed him and began to read with increasing worry. Elliot had apparently been writing to her for months, if not longer. 

The earliest letters seemed to just be about the end of their engagement, but over the past year he had suddenly taken up writing to her in order to stop the break up. At first the letter was sensible, all loving and pleading, begging her to take him back and marry him. 

Then they turned more and more threatening, as Tucker and Danny guessed Sam hadn’t replied on his renewed marriage proposal, as he had hoped. 

Extortion and blackmailing began to fill the pages, most of it lies, but some it was about her family and her work as a ghost hunter. If Danny knew Sam, she wouldn’t have taken this lightly and probably given the man a piece of her mind. 

The last letter even looked like tears had specked the paper. Elliot wrote how he was going to leave the states as his family was going bankrupt. 

Danny rolled his eyes, as Elliot put the blame on a Dalv Masters, whose increasing position and influence on Wall Street had pushed his father out of power. 

He was probably right. 

Elliot had begged Sam to lend her some money and come meet him by the Hudson river, before he left with his ship to Hungary, where his mother lived. 

Danny and Tucker shared a glance and Danny spoke as the first of them, “the harbor?” 

“The harbor.”     

“This-s w-was a mis-istake!” 

Tucker threw another jacket over Danny as the halfa was literally shaking like a child’s rattle, cold like a piece of meat on ice and unable to speak clearly due to his clacking teeth. 

“Dang, Danny, maybe you should turn back human or something,” Tucker suggested and turned his eyes back to the sight of the docks that stretch before them in the silent night. 

Lights from ships and smaller boats could be seen out on the river and further out on the open sea. Tucker squinted and pointed, “hey I can see the Miss liberty, that’s always a good sign.” 

“Th-thinking o-f-f a gia-giant clothed l-lady isn’t goin-ggg to he-heat me up,” Danny scoffed and turned back human. 

He exhaled a huff of heat as his warm blood began to flow in his veins again, but even though being human helped him keep the little warmth he still was able to produce on his own, he felt vulnerable like this. 

He should be ready as Phantom when they found Elliot. 

Tucker pressed a hat down his head, “would it help if I described a mister liberty, then?” 

Danny sent him a sour look through the glasses before punching his shoulder and Tucker grinned as he rubbed his tender shoulder, “okay I deserved that – but you never told me what happened back at the restaurant. You just left it, looking like a thunder cloud and slammed the car door without a word.” 

“I know, I know,” Danny sighed and pulled the blankets closer around him, ignored the snow gathering in the window frames outside the car, “things got out of hand, I just…I couldn’t stand it. Listening to him like what he did to me was something I wanted. Something I made him do.” 

Tucker made a grimace, “that’s fucked up, man.” 

“I know,” Danny replied, “I know I probably shouldn’t have ruined our chances of getting his help on this one, but I could implement it –” 

“And you shouldn’t,” Tucker insisted rigorously and send him a grave look, “you don’t have to take shit from him, Danny, we can do this by ourselves. Anyway, could you imagine how pissed Sam would be if we had made Vlad rescue her?” 

Danny chuckled, already feeling better, “she would have kicked our asses. She’d rather marry Elliot, than let the cheesehead be her knight in shining armor.” 

They crackled in the dark car like naughty children out running past their bedtime, but both turned sober as a car rolled down the cobblestones and stopped before the doors to the nearest warehouse. 

Tucker patted him and pointed. A group of men stepped out of the car and neither Danny or Tucker had to look at them twice to know that this was gangsters. They shared a glance, as they group of men was allowed access to the warehouse. 

The ghost hunters stepped out the car as silent as possible. 

Danny turned back to Phantom, ignored the bone chilling cold that made his teeth sound like maracas and made them both invisible, as they hovered over the snow to the doors. They both ignored the locks and phased right in. 

A dark entrance part to a dusty hall of boxes and containers was all there was to see and both looked around a little confused. 

“This is the right warehouse, right?” Tucker whispered and Danny nodded, fairly sure this was the place those men had just walked into. 

Danny didn’t let go of Tucker, as he continued to hover over the ground silently and flew around a couple of times to see if there was anything going on in the back of the hall or in-between the boxes. 

When no signs of human activity or Miss. Manson appeared, Danny made them both intangible and started to phase through the boxes and containers, only to find that they were ordinary, or as ordinary as shipped cargo could be. 

Tucker made him stop as they phased through an empty container and pointed to the ground. Danny caught on to what he meant. The light wisps of smoke twilled and danced arose the ground of the container like mist and the strong smell of tobacco clung to it. 

As they hovered silently over the ground, the distant sound of music and chatter reached them barely. 

They didn’t waste time on searching for a hatch or hidden door, as Danny just phased them through the ground and as expected, they dropped into a hidden bar, where a lose gathering of drunk people meet them. 

Danny lowered them past the staircase to the hidden hatch and past the two doormen who guarded the hatch with grave expressions. Danny turned them back to visibility behind a couch and Danny changed back to human. 

The place seemed to be one of those hidden bars that sold real alcohol and both Danny and Tucker suspected that the stock of this place was smuggled in from a ship in the harbor. 

Close enough to get the stuff under the nose of the prohibition agents and well-hidden enough to allow people to enjoy themselves in secret. 

Joyful music and wild dancing filled most of the floor, but most people seemed to be here for the sake of booze and hung in the bar or couches around the walls to chatter and drink. 

Someone turned up the radio a notch and a woman’s voice came out in a sorrowful drawl:     

_“It cost me a lot but there's one thing that I've got it's my man_  
_Cold and wet, tired, you bet but all that I'll soon forget with my man!”_

_“He's not much on looks and no hero out of books it's my man_  
_Two or three girls has he that he likes as well as me but I love him!”_

_“I don't know why I should_  
_He isn't good, he isn't true_  
_He beats me, too, what can I do?”_

_“Oh, my man, I love him so_  
_He'll never know, all my life is just despair_  
_But I don't care, when he takes me in his arms_  
_The world is bright, all right!”_

_“What's the difference if I say I'll go away_  
_When I know I'll come back on my knees someday_  
_For whatever my man is, I'm his forever more!”_

   
 

“We kindda stick out,” Tucker noted as both he and Danny was the only ones not in extravagant attires and Danny received a judging glance from a group of guests. 

He guided Tucker to the back of the place and dragged him in for a whisper, “if it gets to a conflict or they try to toss us out, we just let them and phase back in. Sounds like an idea?” 

“Not sure,” Tucker replied, looking around worriedly, “this is a gangster dent, Danny. I’m pretty sure they don’t just throw out unwelcomed guest and let them walk away with their limbs attached. What the hell have Elliot gotten into? Not even I sell sherry to places like this.” 

As an answer to his question, the sound of broken glass and fight broke out behind the door at the bar. The bartender ignored it without as much as acknowledge it and continued to polish a glass in his hand. 

The door behind him swung open and Elliot King stepped out. He sneered something to the room behind him and pressed a hand to his forehead. Even from where they were hiding, they could see a blue mark coloring the skin and Elliot winced as he attentively touched it. 

He grabbed a couple of bottles under the desk and disappeared behind the door again, smothering the sound of commotion and raised voices, that had followed him out from the open door. Danny and Tucker shared a look and moved to the bar. 

They were almost at the bar when Danny’s ghost sense made him huff cold smoke and he grabbed Tucker’s sleeve with a whisper, “Tuck, I think there’s a ghost around here.” 

“We can go ghost hunting after we’ve saved Sam, come on, man,” Tucker replied unconcerned and used Danny’s grip in his jacket to make him move along, “come on, let’s see what all that yelling and commotion was about.” 

Danny forced himself to ignore his instincts and do as Tucker suggested. Staying focused on rescuing Sam. 

The bartender looked harmless as they came, but both he and Tucker would be idiot to assume there wasn’t a bouncer or guard on the other side of the door and, really, stealth was the key to this mission. 

Normally Danny didn’t like going invisible or tangible with passengers this frequently – it took up too much of his power and to fast – but there was no way around it and he phased them through the wall to what turned out to be storage for stacked boxes of booze and a table to make the moonshine of the house. 

The gangsters they had seen enter the place from the car was all in the small space and the leader in the pinstripe suit tapped his foot impatient. 

Elliot, who looked like he was going to freak out, tried to lighten up the mood by offering the group the bottles he had taken from the bar desk. 

“I’m telling you, they still have two hours before the deadline I set in the letter, they’re going to be at harbor with the money,” Elliot insisted optimistic and received a glare from the leader. 

"I’m starting to think you haven’t got a clue about what you’re doing, King,” the man replied with a hidden tone of dangerous impatient, “her parent may be filthy rich Jews, but not even my mother would pay that kind of money.” 

“They will,” Elliot insisted a little too eager and send the phone on the table a pleading look, “your people are going to call any minute now and tell us that they left the house to get the money at the bank. Trust me, you will get your money.” 

“I wouldn’t trust a King with a wooden nickel, kid,” the man snorted, “if they don’t pay the money you own me, me and the boys will have to take you for a ride.” 

The biggest of the gangsters planted a firm hand on Elliot’s shoulder and pushed him to the door of the next room. Now that Danny and Tucker was aware of the door, the sound of trashing and muted yelling could be heard. 

“And get that tomato to quit her hysteria, I thought you said she was a lady – what kind of lady headbutts her fiancé and kicks a grown man’s nuts? Joe’s lucky if he can even have kids after what she did to him.” 

“I’ll go give her another sedative,” Elliot promised and hurried to the door, leaving the gangsters in the storage room with the phone. 

Danny and Tucker made a move to follow and smacked into the guy that had pushed Elliot. Danny could have slapped himself. He must have lost his intangibility during the conversation without even noticing, losing his concentration due to analyzing Elliot’s and the gangsters exchange. 

The man stared surprised at the invisible force that had slammed hard enough into him to and the hit made him take a step backwards and Tucker. 

Tucker seemed to have forgotten that he had to stay in contact with Danny to stay invisible and everyone blinked in surprise as Tucker lost the contact with Dann’s hand and became visible. 

The leader spat his bottle of champagne and the rest made sound of shock as Tucker appeared in the middle of the storage room out of nowhere. Tucker paled a bit as he realized he was visible and put up a sheepish grin. 

“Uhmm…boo?” 

“GHOST!” the biggest gangster squealed in fright and toppled two of his companions as he ran for the door to the bar. 

A section of the boxes began to sway at the impact of the two men falling into the shelves and the leader was the first to draw a gun. 

“Where the fuck did you come from!?” he yelled and fired three shots. 

Danny turned visible to save energy and pushed Tucker out of the bullet’s line. It had been an action based on reflexes and since this wasn’t a ghost Danny hadn’t made up a shield – an action which turned out to be a stupid thing not to do. 

One out of the three bullets hit him and Danny grabbed his ear with a yell, as all sounds was replaced with a ringing sound and warm ectoplasm streamed down his neck. 

Danny allowed Tucker to push him down behind the table be had toppled as protection from the bullets and Danny lifted his hand from his ringing ear to let Tucker examine the damage. 

Tucker winced, “it’s not lethal, but he took a bit of your ear, Danny.” 

“Give it five minutes and no one will ever know,” Danny replied with a pained groan and tried focusing his hearing on the still functioning ear. 

He turned them both intangible as all the gangster began firing at the table and Danny caught the sound of incoming people from the bar. Danny looked around for inspiration and his eyes stopped at the still swaying boxes. 

The gangsters yelled as a ghost-ray hit the bottom of the storage room’s left rows of shelved and as a play of domino, the metal shelves began to fall on by one. 

Danny and Tucker coughed in the cloud of dust and fumes of alcohol that filled the room after the destruction and Danny noted to his satisfaction that the door to the bar now were blocked and the gangsters was caught under a half-fallen shelf. 

Based on the noise he and Tucker could tell that the men was caught, but unharmed – just a bit pissed off. 

“Go go go!” Tucker hastened and they hurried to the door, which content had gone terrible quiet. 

Danny kicked open the door and they both rushed in, only to stop by the sight that meet them. 

Sam was visible unharmed, but much like the men back at the wrecked storage room, she was pinned in place and not likening it one bit. She had been bound to a chair with robes and gaged with her scarf, while Elliot was standing behind her, pressing a pistol to her temple. 

By the sight of them, Sam began trashing and mumbling incomprehensible behind the gag. Elliot locked his free hand in her hair and pressed the gun a little more threatening to her head. 

“Stop right there or I shot her,” Elliot warned and both Tucker and Danny put their hands up to show they were unarmed. 

Trying to calm him down. 

“Hey, no need for that, see? No weapons,” Tucker tried and made jazz hands to lighten up the intense setting. 

That didn’t work as hoped. If anything, Elliot looked twice as panicked as before. 

“Foley, how did you find this place? And if that ghost gets any closer, I’ll swear I’ll shoot her brain out!” Elliot warned and look from Tucker to Danny, clearly terrified by being face to face with a ghost – or half-ghost, but that was a little secret between Danny and his friends. 

To the rest of the town Phantom was just a normal – although strong – ghost under Danny Fonten’s control. 

“Alrigh, alright!” Tucker replied and tried soothing the guy’s temper with a nonthreatening tone, “listen, we get it, you owe these gagsters some money, but hurting Sam and pressing her parents for clams isn’t the solution. If you need protection from them we can help you, Elliot.” 

Danny had no idea if Tucker was being sincere, but honestly it didn’t matter. 

The most important right now was to get that gun away from Sam’s head. While Tucker was doing the talking, Danny watched the man to find a way out of this situation that wouldn’t end in him and Tucker scraping the little bloody pieces of Sam’s head of the walls. 

He could just jump Elliot of course, but the risk of him pressing the trigger in shock or fright was too high. Same went for staying in plain sight and send an invisible duplicate at him. 

Some people could sense a ghost in their proximity and even Sam had told him Phantom radiated some kind of cold if you got to close. 

Danny tried making a discreet sign to Tucker for help, but the Afro-American was too deep into his own hostage negotiation to take any notice of him. 

“– no seriously, the saying is ‘if you love someone let them go’.” 

“Shut up!” Elliot sneered, now more pissed than panicked and even started to lessen his grip in Sam a bit as he continued to quarrel with Tucker, “she may throw me away like I was nothing to her and sleep with another man, but that doesn’t change that I’m her fiancé. You like to hurt me, I know you do, that’s your game, isn’t it?” 

Sam just scowled at him, clearly challenging him to untie those ropes and fight her one even terms. That would be a very unwise thing to do and so he didn’t and pulled her hair in anger. 

“You always screw around with me like that, but god help me if I don’t love you still. You really think I kidnapped you only for the sake of money?” he growled and pointed the gun to Tucker, who had tried to sneak closer, “get back! You’re not going to take her away from me – none of you are!” 

“Elliot –” Tucker tried again, but Elliot had finally had enough. 

“I SAID SHUT UP! You all working against me, all of you! First my fiancé fucks another man, then some jackass steals all my father’s money foundation and my inheritance. Do you have any idea how much cash I had to lend to keep going? Any idea!? A fucking lot, that’s how much!” 

Danny began to move around Elliot without a sound, now that the gun was being pointed wildly around the room, instead of Sam’s temple. 

“I got one chance to get the money tonight and that money would have been mine anyway when we married! When the money’s fed to the sharks I can finally get out of this rotten place and start on new terms with the money Sam brought yesterday – we can start somewhere else and finally be happy together! Do you fucking get it!?” 

“Sounds copacetic,” Tucker encouraged, fighting hard not to look at Danny and focus on getting Elliot to keep on talking. 

Elliot redirected his gun to Tucker with a sneer, “for the last time, shut up! You’re in the way! If you and that spook hadn’t come here tonight, things would have gone smooth, my plan would have gone right – something would have gone right for once! But now it’s ruined, it all wrong!” 

“Hey, we can still fix it, man. Just untie Sam –” 

“I can’t untie her, she almost split my head when I tied her up!” he yelled and pressed the gun to her again with a snap and turned her head up for her to look at him, “I did this for us, can’t you see? It’s this place that made you want to leave me and me you. It’s this place that turns everything wrong, everything bad and everything corrupted. Can’t you see that I’m doing this for us!?” 

Danny were close enough to overshadow Elliot, when something unforeseen happened. 

He was beaten to the punch. 

A strange sound like a gurgling choke left Elliot’s mouth and he stared into the room with soul-shredding fright as his body was possessed by another being. 

Danny felt his blood freeze as those green eyes turned crimson red to the brim of the orbs and turned to gaze into his. 

Sam who had seen Vlad’s ghost-form in the past, but not been informed of his survival into the present, widened her eyes in shock as the overshadowed Elliot grinned down at her and pressed the gun to his own temple. 

“For love,” he said and pressed the trigger. 

Despite the horror of it all, Danny couldn’t deny the strange fascination that filled him by the sight before him. The burst of red that blasted from Elliot’s smirking face turned to a mask of shock in the last second before all life left those eyes. 

Like a disposed veil of flesh, the body of Elliot King fell to the ground and the form of Vlad Plasmius remained standing in his place. 

Unharmed and still smirking with the last wisps of smoke clinging to his temple, as a ghost of the bullet that now rested somewhere in the wall along with blood and pieces of flesh. 

Danny was shaking, but found the strength to make the last inches to the chair and phased Sam out of her restrains, and threw her shocked form into Tucker’s arm. With both his friends out of the way, Danny turned around to stand between them and Plasmius. 

Vlad was still smirking ever so collected, despite just having committed an act of murder slash suicide. How the man could make that holier-than-thou pose and still have a warm corps at his feet, Danny would never understand. 

“Daniel,” he greeted like it was a normal Tuesday and stepped out of the growing pool of blood, “must I really save you from mess like this two nights in a row?” 

“Wait is that…Vlad?” Sam asked astonished and Danny didn’t have to turn around to know he had a storm coming when they got of this, “what the!? What do you want?” 

“From you?” Vlad replied nonchalant and send her leg pants a judging glance, “nothing, I’m here for Daniel alone. I’m sure Mr. Foley here can fill you in on the missing details while I continue my conversation with Daniel in peace.” 

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Danny sneered and Vlad grinned as he killed the last step between them. 

“Then don’t,” he replied as soft and sharp as Japanese silk, and lifted a hand to caress the whitehaired man’s cheek. 

Danny seized his black-gloved hand before he could finish that impulse and eyed him with resentment. Behind him, he could hear Tucker whisper a fast version of the past hour’s events to Sam and help her fill out the gaps that was needed to make sense of this setting. 

Danny felt a lot more confident now being in control of his powers in front of Vlad, but if this murder had taught him anything, it was that his powers didn’t mean a thing if Vlad decided to threat one of his friends. 

Vlad clearly didn’t even care for whenever Tucker and Sam knew about the fully content of their shared past. Danny made a rhetorical guess that Tucker had reached the part about Vlad demanding a date from him, as Sam gasped and made incomprehensible sounds. 

Danny decided he had had enough of this and spoke a language he knew the man understood, “what do you want? I think I made it clear our deal was cancelled.” 

“Maybe,” Vlad mused and tore his hand free, “but you breaking a deal doesn’t stop me from watching the show, now does it, Daniel? And my, what a display. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn’t decided to tag along?” 

“Elliot would still be alive,” Danny noted icy and Vlad offered the body behind him a bored glance, before returning to Danny. 

“And Mrs. Manson would have taken his place, I’m sure,” he pointed out and sent Sam a smirk, “and to think there once was a time when I found your two little friends here useful for your future. It seems that the war changed more than just the old hierarchies.” 

“For ones, you right, cheesehead.” Danny replied and his hands flared up with energy, “a lot have _changed._ ” 

“Is that a challenge?” Vlad asked with an amused glint in his red eyes and began to summon his own energy. 

Cold and hot energy filled the room and began to make static in the air, until it was stopped by Sam, who decided to step in front of Danny. 

“It doesn’t matter if you think we’re worthless or not,” she growled and pointed at Vlad with the gun she had stolen from Tucker’s jacket, “if you want Danny, you’ll will have to go through me.” 

“And me,” Tucker added and joined her with his own gun and thermos. 

Danny admired their courage, but knew they wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell against a ghost like Vlad Plasmius. 

“Guys –” he began, but was interrupted by Vlad’s chuckle as he took in the sight of the three of them. 

“How quaint, three little ghost hunters come together by the illusion of being able to control what they don’t understand, hmmm – who does that remind me of? Oh yes,” he said and snapped his fingers theatrical, “the Fentons and I right before the portal tore us to nothing and killed two out of three in the long run.” 

He snorted and crossed his arms with a look of annoyance, “really, the Fenton’s fate should teach you all that this whole ghost hunting obsession won’t end well for any of you.” 

“We’re not like you or my parents,” Danny replied just as annoyed and phased through Tucker and Sam to get them behind him again and out of Vlad’s reach, “we don’t toy with things we don’t understand, we’re just protecting people from harm. We know what we’re doing.” 

“Do you really?” Vlad asked unconvinced and tapped his chin, despite being shaved in his human form Plasmius’ horns and goatee looked the same, “cause from what I have seen so far, that’s far from true, now isn’t it? First I have to save you from being drugged and possible taken advantage of –” 

“What?” both Tucker and Sam uttered and Danny avoided making eye contact. 

“ – and second, Miss. Manson here gets kidnapped, due to her fiancé’s dealing with the Italian mafia of all things and now there’s a body on the floor. And this is only occurrences of this week. I can’t even begin to imagine what mess you’ve had to deal with the seven years since I’ve been gone.” 

“Yes, about that – could you stay gone?” Sam replied sarcastic and received a scowl from the halfa. 

“Oh, don’t even get me started on you, Miss. Manson. Female activists and running around in the night to hunt specters? How low and disgraceful for the daughter of a Lord. What would your parents think if they knew half the activities their daughter partakes in?” 

“Hey, leave her alone!” Tucker interrupted and moved to protect Sam, who looked as if she was going to pull the trigger and end the half-ghost. 

“Mr. Foley, the knight in shining armor I see,” Vlad droned bored, “I’m afraid your noble actions will go to waste. Miss. Manson clearly has no interest in a second citizen like you, but I could of course be wrong. The rumor has it she a fallen woman. The two of you would make a strange, but equal couple I’m sure.” 

Tucker’s embarrassment and Sam’s wounded pride was the last straw for Danny and he blasted the halfa. 

Vlad had seen it coming and phased out of the room. Danny seized both Sam and Tucker and made ready to follow, when Tucker held him back. 

“What about…” he gestured to the body and Sam dried her angry tears with a sneer. 

“Just leave him, I never want to look at him ever again.” 

“We’ll need the body as evidence for the police,” Danny admitted and made them all solid again, “Weston still thinks me and Tucker kidnapped you after all. We’ll have to hand over the body and end this before the deadline for the money exchange at midnight.” 

Tucker send him a questioning look, “what about Plasmius?” 

“He’ll show up again,” Danny sighed and already dreaded it, “he’s too much of a drama-queen to stay away and really, we have better things to do than play his games.” 

Neither Tucker or Sam had any objections and they worked together in silence, as they covered the body with Danny’s jacket and moved back to the storage room. 

The gangsters were still caught under the toppled shelves and the rest of the people banging on the covered door to get inside. Neither of them payed the gangsters any interest as Sam called her house from the phone and informed the police of the hideouts location. 

Danny phased them back up to the surface and made sure no one left the warehouse, as the police began to arrive in the night and surround the place. 

Weston was anything else than pleased to find that the case had been cracked by Danny and his ghost once again, but played his role as the state of New York’s police chief nevertheless after threatening Danny for good times sake. 

Danny and the others had used the waiting time to synchronize their stories and informed the police of the sad story of a fallen gentleman, who had turned mad after heartbreak and involvement with gangsters. After having kidnapped his fiancé, he had gotten cold feet, faced his own wrongdoing and had ended his erroneous deeds by taking his own life in the end. 

No need to bring panic to the New Yorkers by telling them of Vlad. 

That cheesehead was Danny’s problem. 

Lord and Lady Manson almost smothered Sam in affection, as they pulled her in for a hug and Sam send both Danny and Tucker pleading eyes, as her mother fussed over her and demanded to know if she had been defiled in any way. 

Danny and Tucker moved a bit from the scenery after they had made their statement and watched as the guest from the underground bar was escorted to the black marias. They watched for a bit in silence, before Tucker inhaled and turned to him with a serious look. 

“I knew you and Sam were dating. I just acted clueless for when the two of you decided to tell me.” 

Danny downcast his eyes and pulled the borrowed jacket firmer around him, feeling kind of silly with a sigh, “I thought we were going to become an item at first, else I wouldn’t have risked her reputation like that, but I guess Sam can’t be tamed. I doubt she’ll ever allow herself to get cuffed as anyone’s wife. We thought it would be better to keep it between the two of us after it fell apart.” 

Tucker just nodded and now it was his turn to look away, “about what Vlad said –” 

“He’s just being an asshole, don’t let him get to you like that, Tucker,” Danny replied and turned to look at him, “that prick will say anything to rile you up and get us to distrust one another. It’s just a game to him. He did the same thing to make me stop writing to you and Sam back when I was caught in his castle, and he tried to taint my dad’s memory by saying the accident had been all his fault to. It’s what he does, Tucker. I know – and Sam knows.” 

“But that’s just it,” Tucker retorted insecure and crossed his arms doubtful, “I…I’ll always known that Sam liked you and made sure not to get in between, but the thing is…I like Sam…in a way. But I’m not sure if…” 

“If you like her romantically, take a chance,” Danny finished, having gone through the same set of mixed feelings, “I’ve been there. I guess it’s what happens when you hang out with a woman like Sam Manson. She has that kind of influence on you.” 

“Yeah,” Tucker sighed and they watched as said woman was wrapped in a blanket by her parents and treated like a little fragile girl by the police officers. Sam clearly wanted them all to go to hell and both her friends snorted. Debating whenever to recuse her or not. 

“If you want to try your chances with Sam, don’t let me get in your way,” Danny said and received a glance from Tucker, “if any of us have a chance with her by now, it’s you, Tuck. You might be alright with me being a Nancy, but I doubt Sam will be just as forgiving.” 

“Hey,” Tucker replied harshly and grabbed Danny’s shoulder for emphasize, “Sam won’t judge you, Danny and really you’re no Nancy. What Vlad did to you does not define you and even if you do like men, your sexuality does not defy you. Only you do.” 

Danny bit his lips and nodded after a pause, “if you say so.” 

“I say so. You’re my best friend after all and we’ll always have each other’s back,” Tucker noted and made gesture for them to move, “come on, I drive you home like I promised.” 

“No,” Danny mused and cleaned his glasses with a slip of his sleeve, “you promised to come get me and drive me like a normal person, not the other way around and really, I feel like flying.” 

“You’re sure?” Tucker asked surprised, “you’re going to freeze your ass of in your ghost-form in this cold. You sure you don’t want a ride?” 

“I’m sure,” Danny replied casual and made a little nod with his head in the direction of Sam and the rest of the circus, “you should go over there and offer to drive her home. I’m sure she could use the excuse to get out of her mother’s claws.” 

Tucker watched from him to Sam and Danny could see it already was decided, as Sam caught sight of them and waved for help. Tucker opened his mouth to insist on Danny coming with them, but he had already gone behind a corner to change form and lifted for the air. 

He watched with clattering teeth as Tucker drove her home and smiled despite the biting cold. He had no hopes for Tucker about actually being the one to marry Sam, but he wasn’t going to stand in his best friend’s way, if that was something they both desired. 

And speaking of desire… 

Danny shot into the air at highest speed and reached his apartment before going completely hypothermia. The smell of tea was not a surprise and Danny hung up the borrowed jacket before walking to his kitchen with a deadly scowl. 

Vlad was awaiting him in one of the chairs and smiled ever so calmly. A pot of tea served on the table and a cup waiting for Danny to take a seat. Well, wasn’t that to bad? 

The ecto-blast left a black mark on the wall, where Vlad had been seated just a second earlier and Danny continued to fire at the man, as Vlad dodged his blast with ease. 

Vlad first transformed into Plasmius as Danny turned to ecto-strikes and jumped forward to punch him into the floor. 

The table took the hit and broke into burning pieces, but Danny was too far into his own rage to care and followed Vlad into the living room, furniture and books be damned. 

“Stop. Fooling. Around!” Danny snarled and threw three ecto-disks at the halfa. 

Vlad turned intangible and grabbed Danny’s hands, as the younger went in for a fist fight. They struggled to get dominance in order to throw the other on his back, but both proved to be in too much balance and ended up wrestling instead. 

Danny felt a sting of pride in that moment. Despite having been transformed into halfas by the same explosion in the same moment, Vlad had always been the strongest and the most experienced of them. 

As an already fully-grown adult, his body had been damaged in a hospital for seven years, but his maturity had given Vlad control of his powers only two years after his accident and helped him develop his powers on an insanely fast rate, while Danny had first discovered his halfa powers around the year of ten. 

Somehow his powers had first bloomed for real around his natural human puberty and placed him second in this race that was ghostly power control. 

But now something could seem he had caught up with the man. They were almost equals now. 

“It’s you who’s fooling around, my boy,” Vlad gritted and bared his fangs as Danny fueled their locked hands with energy, “look at yourself! Running around playing hero for a town that shifts between publish your picture and headhunt you the next. How long do you think people is going to believe the human and ghost servant story, before someone puts the pieces together?” 

“I don’t care!” Danny snarled and put all his strength into pressing the man to his knees. Vlad proved to be stronger than that and stayed standing. 

“All the things I could offer you and you choose that little harlot to bed. If she hadn’t made it through with you already, I would have her head –” 

Danny growled and let go to put up a roundhouse-kick. Vlad blocked him with his arm, before grabbing Danny’s foot and send him flying against the wall. 

Frames and shelves fell to the floor, but Danny payed them no mind, as he jumped back on his feet and started sparring the man. 

“If you hurt them, I’ll kill you!” 

“Yes,” Vlad sneered and groaned as one of Danny’s hits got past his shield and moved back to grab his sore chin, “but are you willing to wait for me to kill one of them, my boy?” 

Danny came to a halt and growled warningly. Vlad knew he had the upper hand now and smirked self-assure, “you know I will if you give me a reason to. I don’t even have to do it as a ghost, this town is already deep in my palm, Daniel. They won’t even be safe in their own homes.” 

“And if I don’t believe you?” Danny replied drily and received an even drier look in return. 

“You do.” 

He did. 

He stewed in his irritation as Vlad turned back human and removed an invisible speck of dust from his tailored suit and smirked, “really we should get you into a better apartment, Daniel, this is an utter mess.” 

“And whose fault is that?” Danny sneered. 

“Well you were the one to throw the first pounce, but I can’t really be angry with you since I have tried to teach you that for years and now look at you,” Vlad gleamed proudly, “and such strength, you sure have come a long way, my little badger.” 

“I’m not your little badger, you bastard!” 

“Maybe not at the moment, but you will be,” he mused and moved up to Danny, assure that the younger man wouldn’t bite, “but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, it was your little friends we were discussing. Care to listen to what I demand in exchange for their security?” 

“Indulge me,” Danny replied caustic. 

“For their lives, I want you to come to my mansion on East Egg every Saturday at noon to dine with me. If you stay away, one of your friends will pay the price. If you arrive late, one of them will – again, pay the price. Come in a nice attire, wear a smile and try to behave unlike the scene you caused in the restaurant.” 

Danny didn’t have to fulfill his part and ask, ‘and if I don’t?’. Vlad pretty much had the whole ‘your friends will pay the price’ cut out for him already. It was needless to mention he hated every aspect of this and Sam and Tucker would like it even less. 

Sam would down right tie him up to keep him from going if she could – how far were Tucker with that ghost cuff invention again? – but it would be for their security in the end. 

He had already gone on a date with the man for Sam’s sake, what would make this any different? 

“Fine,” he replied coldly and received a satisfied smile from his tormenter. 

“Excellent.” 

It was first after the man had left that Danny realized just how much his apartment had suffered from the fight. 

Danny decided that he would deal with it in the morning and went to his bedroom – only to find that he had forgotten all about the hastily packed bag on his bed and trashed bathroom. 

He ended up spending the night cleaning the place anyway.


	22. An ill-considered deal leading to more than regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> There had once been a time when Danny hadn't hated Vlad...  
>  _The boy thought for a second Vlad was trying to teach him a lesson, but lost that thought when a warm tongue left a hot brand on his lower lip. Subconsciously and half drunk, Danny went from being passive to participating, gripped the man’s shirt for support and received a pleased grow in return. Danny broke the kiss and stared into Vlad’s red eyes in shock. They were both panting from the lack of air and Vlad placed a thumb on his swollen lip, seemed to look into him and further into his soul._  
>  _“It-It’s not right,” Danny whispered, only making Vlad narrow his blazing eyes._  
>  _ **Hmm, you sure that’s what you want, Danny-boy?** Spectra’s deceased voices whispered into his ear and mixed with the sight of the red hue in Vlad’s eyes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But Danny hand't killed Spectra  
>  _“I won’t hurt you, if you tell me who you work with,” Danny interrupted and crossed his arms, “so start talking.”_  
>  _“S-Spectra,” Bertrand stammered, wriggling pathetic in his restrains, “Penelope Spectra!”_  
>  _“Spectra is dead, I killed her,” Danny replied coldly and the ghost shook his head franticly._  
>  _“No, that’s the thing – she just wanted you to believe that, it was a trick.”_  
>  _“How?”_  
>  _“Her human form is nothing but a glamor. She takes life-force to ad layers of youth to her glamor and keep a young appearance. She phased out of her outer layer as you froze her and escaped!”_
> 
> And Vlad to has plans in New York  
>  _“There’s a page from the ghost wander’s journal is in New York?”_  
>  _Vlad stopped his rant and turned to Danny with a surprised expression._  
>  _Danny smirked, feeling the situation falling back into his hands._  
>  _“I see, so the ghosts think that one of the pages is in my territory? I guess that’s the real reason you’re here, Vlad – like one of those pages for yourself, **don’t you?** ”_  
>  _Vlad didn’t seem to fancy his teasing tone and scoffed, “of course I do. The person possessing the pages and collects the journal will be the most powerful entirety in the Ghost Zone and therefor the world. With those pages, I could finally rule as I always have been destined to.”_
> 
> and of course he has a plan with Danny  
>  _"But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, it was your little friends we were discussing. Care to listen to what I demand in exchange for their security?”_  
>  _“Indulge me,” Danny replied caustic._  
>  _“For their lives, I want you to come to my mansion on East Egg every Saturday at noon to dine with me. If you stay away, one of your friends will pay the price. If you arrive late, one of them will – again, pay the price. Come in a nice attire, wear a smile and try to behave unlike the scene you caused in the restaurant.”_
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey people!!!  
> From me to you, here's yet another chapter torturing our little favotite half-ghost  
> Ready for some more original characters to join this story?  
> In this chapter the jazz singer sings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3heCSPJrO70  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

“Did Vlad really believe it would be that easy to get you back?” 

Danny put up a grimace and waved the cop of, “Vlad had an ego the size of globe back then, I guess he didn’t even saw our past as something bad, just me being difficult. In his head, I had left me for Sam or something stupid like that and now he wanted to ‘seduce me’ and show me his love. Such a fruitloop.” 

Nichols agreed, “at least he didn’t try and enslave you again, just…. used your friends against you – how did that work out by the way?” 

“Actually…” Danny began and then scratched his neck sheepishly, “things didn’t work out, not for Vlad and not for me either. The whole tag-game between us was interrupted by a third part.” 

Nichols straightened a bit in his chair and ignored the back pain, “hopefully someone on your side?” 

“In a way,” Danny admitted, but his face told the cop that things were more complicated than so, “it was Friday – the day before I was to meet Vlad – when I was out following some disturbance caused by a horde of ectopuses. Those are like the Ghost Zone’s rats or something, looks like green octopuses and –” 

“Get to it,” Nichols replied impatient and Danny sighed heavily like he didn’t like to talk about it. 

“I was sloppy and didn’t see the danger 'til I was sucked into a ghost-proof device, okay? At first, I thought someone had stolen one of our thermos, but when I was released it was clearly more box shaped and made by some other group of ghost hunters.” 

“Competition?” 

“They made me an offer.” 

Nichols nodded, seeing where this was going, “let me guess, they made you an offer you couldn’t refuse?” 

Danny snickered, “well, they weren’t the Italian mafia, Mr. Walker sounded a bit Texan actually. He sat me down in a dark office and explained to me that he and his organization; the ‘Guys in White’ –” 

Danny made quote marks with a face that clearly stated how much respect he held for that name. 

“ – had watched me for some time and he liked what I had done for the city – his city apparently. Funny thing is, I had actually heard of him. Walker that is,” Danny admitted and bit the inside of his cheek thoughtful, “he was one of those white mob bosses that kept his part of the streets clean and secure without the usual mob wars. A brother of the mayor and all. From what I had heard he was one of those unforgiven, but righteous types, who like his territories undisturbed and only charged fair protection money. At least from the white businesses, that is. Most of his territories was white people.” 

“Sounds racist,” Nichols grunted. 

“It was the 1920’s”, Danny elaborated offhanded, “you won’t believe half the shit Tucker had to go through just to get a soda in a bar – or Sam for that matter. Really, they would both had been better of living in the 21-century. I guess all of us would. Gay, black and feminist – we just needed a handicap person on our team and we would have represented the whole package deal of the 1900-centurie’s most unwanted.” 

Nichols didn’t know what to answer to that and licked his dry lips instead. Felt the first signs of tiredness sneak up on him. They were well past midnight, but Danny story was far from over. The kid still had 90 years left to explain. 

“And the offer?” Nichols asked, making Danny return back on track with his story. Danny just shrugged. 

“Well he knew about my secret and so did all his ghost hunter – ‘cause they were ghost hunters and pretty impressive to. Not like those fake mediums and amateur hunters I’d come across while hunting with Tucker and Sam. The Guys in White meant business. Walker wanted us to be on good terms, normally they extinguished ghosts, but since I was half-human I didn’t fit that policy.” 

Danny made a face as if he had tasted something bitter and shook his head, “I told him I didn’t work with ghost hunters, it doesn’t matter if ghost is the shadow of already dead humans or not, they don’t deserve to die like that.” 

“My guess is that he didn’t take your refusal well,” Nichols replied and Danny winced. 

“Uhm…actually, he ended up making me a pretty good…deal? So…I kinda took it,” Danny finished lamely and looked away to avoid Nichols’ confused look. 

“Like what?” 

Danny laughed forced, “well…turned out my secret wasn’t the only secret he knew about. He offered me and Phantom investigation a place in his organization and a safe position under his protection. Financial support, equipment, dental, the whole package – in return he wanted us to do jobs for him and help him keep the city clean from ghosts.” 

Nichols still didn’t get it until Danny exhaled and turned back to look him in the eyes, “all that and he would sweeten the deal by taking care of Dalv Masters.” 

It took Nichols a second to understand and widened his eyes, “taking care of him as in…Danny did you agree to have him _assassinated!?_ ” 

“I wasn’t thinking straight!” Danny defended hastily and ran an annoyed hand through his wild tresses, “I was just so _angry_ and tired of it all and Walker made it all sound so clean and easy, and I just wanted some peace god dammit! – it just seemed like the perfect solution to all my problems and I really, really, _really_ didn’t want to go to have dinner with him the next day.” 

Nichols had crossed his broad arms and Danny returned his glare with a shameful expression, looking like the kid that had been caught with a hand in the cookie jar. Or gun. Clearly anything but proud of what he had committed to. 

Nichols had hoped Vlad Masters would have died somewhere in this story for Danny to have his happy ending, or at least some ending, but having Danny killing him like this? Nichols had had higher hopes for him. 

“If it’s any consolation I didn’t take his offer right away,” Danny grumbled and hugged himself like he was cold, “he let me go with a business card and I returned home without a scratch.” 

“But you _did_ take the offer,” Nichols clarified and Danny nodded with a guilty expression and downcast eyes. 

“When I returned home I found a letter announcing that my apartment had been resigned and all my expenses paid for me. I had a day to pack my stuff and leave. A second letter told me to meet up at my new all-paid apartment by the river to receive the key and sign the needed papers with the estate agent.” 

Danny rubbed his arms and stared ahead with an empty look, “Vlad hadn’t been back in my life more than 48 hours and he’d already taken control of it. It was the bouquet of purple hyacinth that made me take Walker’s offer. I had sped enough time with Vlad’s old gardener, Mr. McHells to know what that flower meant. _Forgiveness._ ” 

Danny dragged his lips into a hard long line and the hair fell down to cover his eyes. 

“I called Walker and told him I would take his offer. He promised to take care of Vlad before Saturday evening. Promised it would be quick. He promised a lot of things.”     

   
 

 _Year 1927, the office of Phantom investigation, New York, USA_

_**“He promised a lot of things.”**_     

   
 

Danny stared at the celling and counted the hours, minutes, and seconds. 

In total, it had been seven hours, two minutes and thirty-five seconds since he should have been seated at Vlad’s table and possible his lap. Danny checked his wristwatch again just to be sure and felt a mix of relief and anxiety. 

Don’t get him wrong, it felt amazing to defy Vlad’s orders like this and take back control of what and where he wanted to be, and with who he wanted and how he wanted. Of course, he knew what he was doing – or had done? – was so, so, sooooo wrong. 

Danny didn’t kill people. At least he tried not to. The castle’s servants had been a complete accident and never intentionally – neither had the crossover of those ghosts in the past. 

Danny still didn’t know for sure if he had led those ghosts to the Unworld or not, but despite believing in his own powers, the doubt hung heavy as a judgment on him. 

Killing Vlad had never been a wish he had allowed himself to dwell on for too long at a time. 

Back when Vlad had bound him to the headboard the first time, Danny had wanted him five feet under, but wanting Vlad dead in the heat of a fight and planning his death in cold serenity, was to entirely different things. 

Danny wasn’t the type to plan others death or held a grudge like that. 

For the last couple of hours, he had been tempted by his own fears to call Walker and put a stop to it, but every time he had reached for the phone he had stopped himself just as sudden and returned to his position on the couch. 

Counted the seconds until Vlad’s final hour. Danny found himself shaking and covered his eyes in the lonely office. 

He had packed his stuff and moved out of the apartment, but he would rather die than move into some golden cage Vlad had suited for him and went straight to the office of Phantom investigation instead. 

Hidden his bag behind the couch and crashed it with a blanket or two. When the clock had struck midnight and Vlad hadn’t come for him or his friends, Danny had finally found the ability to sleep and gotten a few hours before the alarm waked him again at 6 am. 

Danny should probably be happy that Vlad was dead, but the truly happiness never showed. He felt giddy that his biggest problem was out of the world, but the rest of him just felt hollow. 

It might have been Walker’s goons who had carried out the job, but the blood might as well be on Danny’s hands. He had given the green light for it. He had paid this assassination with the promise of corporation. 

Now he had to live with it. 

“There’s no taking back, Fenton,” Danny whispered and tried to get use to the new feeling of guilt, he knew would never leave him now. 

It would be more than easy to say that Vlad had it coming and be all self-righteous about it, but that wasn’t who Danny was. 

At least he hoped. 

Another treacherous hope in him was that Vlad had survived somehow. Danny pursed his lips, turning the possibilities around in his head. Vlad was strong and powerful both as human and ghost, but he wouldn’t be expecting something so cynical from Danny. 

Vlad wouldn’t have seen it coming, because Danny hadn’t seen it coming neither. Walker had emerged out of nothing and his people were professionals. They knew what they were up against, right? 

_Wait a minute…_

Danny sat up, suddenly a little sweaty. They knew Vlad was a halfa like him, right? _Right!?_

Danny’s minor panic-attack was rudely interrupted by the phone on his desk and he jolted by the shrieking sound. Fearing what voice and message he was going to hear, he climbed out of the tangled blankets at lifted cautiously the handset. 

“Phantom investigation, Mr. Fenton here,” Danny said and had to clear his voice. 

He closed his eyes as Walker’s authoritarian voice reached him from the other end. 

_“My part of the deal is complete, I will meet you and your hunters at the Vice End at 20:00.”_

The connection was cut before Danny could put in a word or even ask about how they had pulled out said deal. But he guessed he didn’t really want to know anyway. 

Vlad’s death or disappearance would surely be discussed in tomorrow’s papers if not before. Dalv Masters hadn’t been a nobody. Maybe he would finally find peace with Vlad Masters. 

Danny was still deep in thought with handset in hand as the door to the office opened and his two best friends walked in for work. 

They were both chatting and looked up in surprise by seeing him this early. 

“Wow, Danny, I wouldn’t have expected to see you before noon,” Sam said and hung her coat on the coat stand near the door, “wait…did you sleep here?” 

Danny gave his bag a discreet kick to get it deeper behind the couch and tried to act normal as he fished out his glasses from his pocket and put them on, “well, I was pretty tired after my routine patrol last night and took a nap here. We should get a new couch by the way, this one’s too hard to sleep on.” 

“We could use some of that money we earned from the job at Mrs. Capster,” Tucker suggested and looked around the simple office, “actually this whole place could use a make-over. Make it look a little more professional. Maybe even hire a full-time secretary to take calls when we’re not here and give Sam some more time to herself.” 

“I’m fine!” Sam insisted, hating the way they pampered her, “I was over Elliot even before the kidnapping and he has been in the dirt since Wednesday, so could we please just get over it and stop treating me like I’m made of porcelain?” 

“Sorry,” both men said and Sam rolled her eyes at them before taking her seat behind her desk. Getting ready to take calls and finish some paperwork. 

“And you still haven’t heard from Vlad?” Tucker asked as he moved to his working table to finish a new blueprint for a ecto-fuled bazooka. 

Danny had his back to them as he had moved to his own desk and kept his voice in line. 

“Can’t say I have. Guess he wants us to come for him. Too bad we have better things to do.” 

“You bet we have,” Sam agreed and Danny felt his insides growl at him. Should he tell them? 

The fear of what they would think of him if they knew made him kill that need already before it could evolve and he stored it deep within him, along with all the rest of the things he could never tell them. 

But there where things he couldn’t keep from them. 

“Uhm, I have a confession to make.” 

Both Sam and Tucker stopped what they were doing and Danny turned around to face them with a guilty expression. 

“You guys remember how we agreed to never allow other competition to get in on our office or take partnerships?” Sam seemed to have an idea where this was going and made a sour face, “just spit it, Danny.” 

“Well,” he began and scratched his neck, “I might have gotten us under a bigger ghost hunting organization called ‘Guys in White’ and agreed to work for them as a side office…” 

“Danny!” Sam yelled and slammed her palms on the desk, “what the hell where you thinking!?” 

“Yeah, man, what the hell?” Tucker joined and Danny dragged a hand down his face, trying to come up with a believable story, that would cover up the fact he sold them all for the promise of Vlad’s death. 

“I know it sounds bad, but really I think it would be a huge benefit for us as a business to work with these guys,” Danny explained and knew he had little time before Sam would start throwing things, “the fact is that they know my secret, so it’s not like we have any choice, if you two don’t mind me keeping my secret from the press – and Walker’s actually a pretty decent man. He will pay us on a monthly rate and take care of all our expenses. He wants to meet us as a team on the _Vice End_ tonight to discuss the arrangement.” 

“Wait, wait, wait, ” Tucker interrupted before Sam could put in an angry word, “are we talking about Walker, as in Walker? The biggest white mob boss in the state of New York? And he wants _us_ to meet _him_ at _Vice End_?” 

“So what?” Sam asked, anything but impressed and Tucker just gawked at her. 

“So what!? Guys, we can’t say no to an offer from Mr. Walker! One, because he’s not a man you refuse an offer from, and two, because you just don’t! And he wants us to meet him at _Vice End_ and everything!” 

Sam snorted drily, “isn’t that one of those loose night clubs at upper Manhattan that serves booze in broad daylight to gangsters?” 

“You guys have no idea,” Tucker replied star struck, “that place is like Cotton Club, just with the exception that it’s impossible to get a table there if you don’t know somebody inside and it’s even trickier to perform at the scene – I’ve heard they don’t even allow black people in unless they’re third-part white!” 

Tucker suddenly widened his eyes and grabbed Danny, “and he said he wanted us to come, as in ALL of us? He knows I’m black, right? Please says he knows and will let me in still!” 

“Oh yeah, he knows I’m half ghost, but not your skin tone, sure,” Danny replied sarcastic and shared a toothy grin with Tucker. 

Sam narrowed her eyes, sensing that she had been outvoted on this deal already. 

“Anyone else than me smelling something fishy about this?” she asked, annoyed by the fact that the two had been bought over that easily and the two males ignored her, “could you to get down from the fumes of free drinks and think this through?” 

“But, Sam, what is there to doubt?” Tucker asked, still giddy as a child on Christmas eve, that they had been invited to the wild part of New York. 

“Everything!” she insisted and threw her hand up to exaggerate, “and becoming part of New York’s criminal layers is the absolutely last we need as people and coworkers! We’ll become gangsters if we start working with that guy and I don’t know about you two, but I thought the meaning with this office was to help people, not helping bribe and suppress them!” 

“I know,” Danny admitted, but then brightened, “but they’re ghost hunter like us, Sam. They want to help people by stopping ghosts. They want our help and really – do you want my secret to be exposed?” 

“Of course not!” 

“Then the _Vice End_ it is!” Tucker cheered and earned a facepalm from Sam. 

   
 

They were still divided on whenever this was a good idea or not as the taxi stopped in front of the night clubs grand front. 

The red canopy, lights and people arriving at the curb was promising enough, but despite them being in their best attire and ready to walk into the land of higher entertainment, Sam was looking like a thundercloud ready to strike. 

“I still don’t like this,” she uttered for the third time that ride and both males shared a worried look. 

“At least give it a chance,” Danny begged and hoped to god they wouldn’t have to fight their way out of this place. 

He could all but imagine what scene Sam might cause if she found just the slightest justification for her sepsis of this ordeal and really, Danny wanted this to work out. 

One, because he didn’t feel like finding his face on the newspapers and read how Wes Weston had been right all along – and two, even he knew it was a bad move to piss off a man who had just stained his expensive white gloves with specks of blood for your sake. 

He owed Walker. He would owe him for as long as the man lived. 

Which was what? 60 years? What was the average lifespan for mob bosses again? 

“Danny, you’re coming?” Tucker asked and Danny snapped out of his math speculation to step out of the taxi. 

The unsaid rule that he was the one to get them in, since he was the one to get them into this in the first place, was all but subtle pushed down on him, as Sam directed her gloomy scowl to him and Tucker pleaded with big puppy-eyes. 

“Right,” Danny sighed and took the lead to the club’s open doors. 

Two huge bouncers and a cheery woman in a suit at the reception welcomed them and Danny felt the heavy gaze of those two men showering him along with his friends mixed feelings, as he offered his name to the receptionist. 

“Uhmm, Danny Fonten?” 

She didn’t even check her list – looking from this angle it looked incredible short in Danny’s opinion – before blighting up in a knowing smile and made a little toss with her head. The trio shared a glance before following her behind the draped curtains and into the center of the club. 

Danny blinked as his eyes adjusted to the soft lightning and colors. 

The receptionist just smiled by their stunned expressions and lead them down the stair to the large ground floor and sections of tables, all centered around a grand stage shimmering like the Hudson River at dawn, where guests dances to the lively jazz music. 

Danny watched around the temple of intricately designed and glamorous chrome, glass, shiny fabrics, mirrors and mirror tiles. 

They had clearly hit a vein of the higher existence and all except Sam could only try to keep their jaws from falling loose, as they were seated at a fairly well-placed table in the midst of the sophisticated geometric and angular shapes, that dressed the club and its guests. 

A female waiter in a suit was with them in seconds and served them champagne to the brim of the glasses and winked with dramatic colored eyeshadow, matching the smoky atmosphere. 

“All drinks on the house,” she promised and moved to the next table where five men cheered as a waiter beheaded a champagne bottle with a saber. 

The dancing pairs near the scene burst out in applaud as the orchestra and the shiny dressed dancers ended their number. 

“Wow,” Tucker exhaled and took a sip of his champagne, “and it’s the real stuff to. This champagne is defiantly from France. Can I get buried in here, please? This place is bee's knees!” 

Danny laughed, but Sam was not amused. 

“Is that really all that’s needed for you two to trust this guy? Some cabaret dancers, giggle water and rich-ass interior? Are you two really that easy?” 

“Aw, come on, Sam,” Danny grinned and tried losing up the tight atmosphere she was oozing like a machine, “it’s all on the house apparently. How bad can he be if this is how he treats people before a deal?” 

“And speaking of deal,” she sneered, “where is Mr. Walker? Huh? My guess is that he won’t show up before all this stuff has you already melted at his feet. It’s all for show, how cheap. Just like the people in here.” 

Sam scowled as the waiter returned and placed a festive looking drink before her. 

“From Mrs. Dina Bellum,” she said and left again just as briefly. 

Sam’s eyes widened and she searched the club like in a frenzy before setting eyes on an elderly woman at the higher tables. The woman made a toast to Sam with her own drink and Sam returned the gesture weakly. 

“Who’s Dina Bellum?” Tucker asked surprised and Sam giggled with a blush. 

“Just the sole brain behind the woman’s right campaign of state New York and my idol,” Sam whispered starstrucked and sipped the drink like it was holy water. 

Sam’s mood changed tremendously after the discovery of her idol among the guests and she joined in on the joyous ambience as they shared the bottle and watched the show. 

The club dimmed as the next source of entertainment took the stage and a single piano was lit with a young jazz singer lying on top. A slow teasing tone set the mood and the dark man playing watched the singer with a glint in his eye. 

Danny, Tucker and Sam watched as the young woman slowly straighten from her lying position and made the piano’s dark surface sparkle with lights from her shimmering blue dress. 

Despite being a petite little white woman, her voice reached them with a certain tone that didn’t wavered a second as she dipped into a sassy tone.   

_“Some of these days you're gonna miss me honey_  
_Some of these days you're gonna be so lonely_  
_You'll miss my hugging miss my kissing too_  
_You'll be so sorry when I'm away from you_  
_Now you're gonna be lonely just for me only_  
_Cause you know honey that you had your way_  
_And when you leave me you know it's gonna grieve me_  
_You're gonna miss your little honey some of these days.”_

 

“Nifty,” Tucker noted and even Sam, who never paid musicians any mind, gave it a shrug. 

“She’s ducky for a white jazz singer I guess.” 

Tucker gave her a playful push and she returned it with a sniggering. Danny joined in on it as Sam used her champagne as ammo and began spray it with snaps of her fingers. 

They probably looked immature to the rest of the club, but Danny really couldn’t care. 

“We should get out more often like this,” he grinned and took a sip of the little champagne he had left in his tall glass. Sam leaned back and dried the bubbles of her face with a napkin. 

“I know, we’ve got pretty cooked up with the whole office thing, haven’t we? I like to come back here with you two once in a while, before we all get married and all that.” 

“How do you expect me to marry, Sam?” Tucker asked in forged indignation and adjusted his tuxedo with a smirk, “with all this charisma, how am I supposed to make do with just one woman?” 

Sam scoffed goodhearted and pushed down his red fedora, “with your charisma I’m surprised you even have hopes of getting one.” 

“Hey, I could get a date if I wanted!” 

“Yeah right,” Sam snorted and they both watched a little surprised as Tucker suddenly rose with a determinate face and left the table. 

Danny bit the inside of his cheek, “is he really going to go find a date...in here?” 

Sam shrugged with a worried face, “Tucker is a grown man, I’m sure he wouldn’t do something as risky as that. And talking about risky – what’s with you lately, Danny?” 

“Me?” 

“Yeah, going around making deals behind our backs and go patrolling on your own. It’s not like you, normally we do things as a team, but now…” she suddenly looked at him funny, “ever since Vlad showed up it’s like you pulled into yourself like a shell. We don’t even go hunting anymore – when was the last time we helped a ghost cross over?” 

Danny couldn’t remember, “we’ve just had a rough week, Sam, that’s all. You got kidnapped after all and everything. When things cool down everything will return to normal.” 

At least he hoped. Now that Vlad was out of his life, but replaced with Mr. Walker, a lot of things would change, but hopefully to the better. 

The guilt of the half-ghost’s death was quickly washed down with the rest of his champagne and Danny recalled what Vlad had told him back at his apartment. 

Danny hadn’t been his only reason to travel to New York. A page from Sojourn’s journal was somewhere in the city. 

Neutralizing Vlad meant that Danny no longer had to fear the consequences of Vlad ruling the gates to the Elsewhereness, but from what the man had babbled, something would seem that Vlad had been hunting this journal for quite some time. 

Danny should probably go to his place and search for any collection of pages. Burning them and secure that no one ever gained that dangerous knowledge. He was going to go there to close the man’s portal under all circumstances. 

Another good thing about Vlad’s death was the fact that Plasmius would no longer be able to banish people to the Unworld. To gates closed with one stone. 

_Is it so hard to believe that if anyone should be the gateways to a world neither ghost or human can survive, it would be the creatures that’s the very essence of it?_

Vlad’s silky voice came back to him like vicious smoke penetrating his self-righteous thoughts and the champagne turned bitter in his mouth. 

“Sometimes I doubt we help ghost by making them cross over,” he whispered and gained Sam’s attention. 

“Duh, they cross over to better place, Danny. That’s what ‘cross over’ means.” 

“But…” Danny retorted, swallowing drily, “what if it _isn’t_ a better place?” 

Sam snorted, “what do you mean?” 

“I mean…what if…we’re making them cross over to a worse place than this? What if my powers lead them to…somewhere bad?” 

Sam reformed that worried expression from before, but now it was directed at him. Danny sighed tiredly and put down his glass, not wanting to celebrate anything anymore. 

He could criticize Mr. Walker and his Guys in White for killing ghosts all he wanted, but in the end, he was even worse than them. No one knew where ghosts went when they died – but he knew where his powers would. 

“Where is this coming from?” Sam asked alarmed, “was it because of what that guy Klemper said? Have other ghosts said something to you?” 

“Does it matter?” Danny asked bitterly, “if the ghosts are afraid of my powers, then maybe there’s something to it. It’s not like I have ever taken a second to stick my head through to see where they cross over to.” 

Sam didn’t have an answer to that and Danny ignored her in favor of the entertainment. They both turned back their attention on the singer as she had moved to the end of her performance.   

_“Yes you'll be lonely just for me only_  
_Yes you know honey yes you had your way_  
_Cause when you leave me oh you know it's gonna grieve me_  
_You're gonna miss your little honey some of these days_  
_You're gonna miss your little honey some of these days.”_

 

Danny and Sam applaud along with the rest of the club and the young woman bowed and smiled charmingly to her audience, as red roses was thrown on stage for her and the orchestra to take. 

“Tell me who you love!?” the little jazz singer called to the club and the guest started chanting her name and whistle along with the applaud. 

“She’s pretty,” Sam noted and Danny just nodded, “even though she looks like a school girl and acts like a slut, maybe you should go talk to her after this place closes.” 

“Sam,” Danny began, but she interrupted him. 

“I don’t want you to feel like a failure just because our relationship didn’t work out,” Sam said and send him a glance he chose not to take as pitiful, “take a break from all this self-loathing, would you? You don’t have to give up on a future because of your past. Vlad doesn’t define you. You’re not homosexual just because he –” 

“I think I was already before him, Sam.” 

She turned to look at him now, as in _really_ look at him and Danny felt a sudden sting of unrest in his guts. 

Her eyes told neither of understanding nor prejudice, but ever since Elliot’s death, Danny had feared that something in the way Sam regarded him had change after the disclosure of his relationship with Vlad. 

“I never gave it a thought because of…well you know…boys are supposed to like girls and that’s how we’re raised. I held you in a special light because of how close we were and I put girls like Paullina on a pedestal, because she was such a girl I had been taught from childhood to admire. And I had no doubts that I was like any other boy, Sam, and why should I? We were just kids.” 

Danny took off his glasses to rub the sore bridge of his nose and Sam rotated her champagne in thought. 

She pursed her lips, not sure of what to say, “what changed? Or when, I suppose.” 

“Around when we were fourteen, I think,” Danny replied slowly, clicked his tongue, “I meet an older woman and she took a certain… _likening_ to me.” 

Danny frowned at the memory of Penelope Spectra and her piano lessons. It still left a bad taste in his mouth to recall that she had tricked him into thinking he had killed her back then. 

The inner picture of her form frozen to solid ice, before falling to the floor and breaking into a million pieces was still as vivid as ever. But now he knew it had all been a lie. 

“She abused you,” Sam concluded and Danny could already hear the imagination spinning pictures in her pretty head. 

“She wanted to,” Danny corrected, “I fought her of before she could get the chance, but it wasn’t her advances on me that proves my point. My point is, that she was a beautiful woman laying all opportunities before me and a pubescents boy would have been mad not to take the chance with her – or even resist her. But I did.” 

Danny turned to her with a tired expression, “I felt nothing. Nothing, Sam. I even had the audacity to feel disgusted by her. What kind of man feel disgusted by the promise of sex from a beautiful woman? What kind of man kisses his stepfather in a drunken state, when he’s at his most honest?” 

Sam tilted her head, her confusion changing to that of horrified, “Danny…are you telling that…you _liked_ Vlad?” 

Danny’s mouth fell shut. His brain hurried to pick up all the best arguments of why he absolutely hadn’t liked Vlad back then and why would she even say something like that? – when Tucker returned to pull out a chair at their table. 

But instead of taking the seat himself, the jazz singer from the stage sat down and smirked at Tucker as he took his old seat next to Sam. 

“Sorry to interrupt you, but I like you to meet Miss. Kemberly. The star of _Vice End_ ,” Tucker grinned and laughed as both Sam and Danny deadpanned, lost at words. 

Danny had to admit she was even prettier up close with her long teal brown hair collected in a billowing updo and delicate doll-like features framed by two lush locks of hair. 

Kemberly snickered by their baffled expressions and tittered, “you were right, Tuck, those two wet blankets have too little faith in you.” 

Sam recovered as the first, “alrigh you proved us wrong, Tucker. So, you’re the star of this joint? You’re in with Mr. Walker or something?” 

Kemberly returned Sam’s jap with a cheeky grin, “believe it or not, baby, but being a moll actually gets you somewhere. Gangsters likes jazz singers and Walker likes them white, so that’s my luck.” 

“Do you ever sing elsewhere?” Danny asked for the sake of conversation, “you have a great voice, you could get a job anywhere in the city.” 

“Thanks, apple-cheek, but call me Kember, all the fellas do,” she smiled and allowed a waiter to serve her five different drinks, all gifts from different guests around them, “can’t say I’ve seen any of you around here before and I should know, I sing here every night and know every face.” 

Kember gave Sam the elevator look, “especially the tasteless critics.” 

Sam scowled and Danny sent her a glace to make her behave. It would be a bad first impression to get into a fight with Walkers’ favorite singer. 

“We have a meeting with Walker,” Tucker explained and Kember winced at them. 

“Uhh, let me guess? You three are on the lam? Got issues with the police? You better have a deal ready for him, he doesn’t make freebies.” 

“He asked us to be here,” Sam replied drily, “and really its none of your beeswax.” 

“Sam,” Tucker scolded, but she ignored him, challenging the other female to fight her verbally. Kember narrowed her eyes, but kept up the cheeky smile. 

“Uhh, that’s cold, bearcat. The guys must just adore you with that temper,” Kember retorted with thick sarcasm and then froze as a hand landed heavy on her bare shoulder. 

“Miss. McLain, you’re wanted at the scene.” 

Kember peaked up to send the man a sheepish smile and rose to leave him her chair. But before leaving, she leaned to Tucker with a smile, “give me something for luck?” 

She took Tucker’s red fedora before he could answer and he smiled after her as she returned to the stage. The man took the empty seat and was instantly flanked by two men in white suits. Both mute and stern like bodyguards – which none of them doubted they were at this point. 

The way he acted as if he owned the very table made them all come to the same conclusion. 

The man was Mr. Walker. 

The white-clad mob boss took of his black fedora to run a hand through his stark blond hair. It almost seemed as pale as his skin in the soft light and was gelled back hard enough to make it almost appear like a second skin. 

Despite the perfectly clean appearance and spotless white suit, there was something sickly about the man. Like he was too clean for his own good and the high cheekbones didn’t help on the skull-like features either. 

“I see you have meet Kemberly McLain,” he drawled and kept his eerily grey eyes on them as a nervous waiter served him a glass of whiskey, “other than her company, how do you find this little establishment?” 

Danny was the only one of them that had actually meet the man in person before and he could practically feel the uneasy seep from his two best friends. 

Danny decided to help them by being the one to speak for the group, “we love it. Nice place you got here, Mr. Walker. Listen, we have been talking and we like the offer, but maybe a bit more details would be in order? Sir?” 

He added the last just for good measure and the politeness seemed to land well with the man. 

“Off course, while you and I have ours sorted out, I’m sure the rest of the Phantom Investigation will need their part – Charles.” 

The goon named Charles cleared the table and placed a black suitcase on it. Danny and the others stared curious as Walker opened it and pulled out a stack of papers. 

“Terms and working conditions is stated here in white and black for you to read and I would recommend that you keep these documents safe. Mr. Fonten’s other identity will depend on it and of course, you have my word that me and my organization will keep our part of this discretion policy,” he explained stoic as a sergeant and Sam began to read the fine print with a suspicious frown. 

“You will be payed a monthly fee and one of my specialized teams will be at your service, should a job leave a mess or any other obstacles needed to be taken care of.” 

“You mean removing evidence and people?” Sam asked, not letting any secret of her opinion on the matter go unheard. 

“Things happen,” Mr. Walker replied without any remorse and sipped his whisky, “as said, you have my word that I will protect Mr. Fonten’s secret and treat your office with the respect it deserves. In return, I expect you to take the jobs I find suiting and respond to me as your employer.” 

“And how do you expect us to contact you?” Sam asked, flipping through papers and making sure there was no hidden deals in between. 

“By phone or showing up in person at this establishment,” Walker replied offhanded, “as my employees this place will be open to you at all times. This table is yours to visit as you please and all will be on the house.” 

Tucker send Danny a face like he was going to faint from happiness and even Danny couldn’t hide his excitement. This table was theirs? And everything was on the house!? 

Both males turned to Sam with pleading puppy eyes and she scowled, knowing that she was never going to stop hearing for it if she put down this offer. 

“Fine, where do we sign?”


	23. It’s a gangster paradise, but don’t go looking for angels, honey.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny made a deal...  
>  _He sat me down in a dark office and explained to me that he and his organization; the ‘Guys in White’ had watched me for some time and he liked what I had done for the city – his city apparently. He was one of those white mob bosses that kept his part of the streets clean and secure without the usual mob wars. A brother of the mayor and all. From what I had heard he was one of those unforgiven, but righteous types, who like his territories undisturbed and only charged fair protection money."_  
>  _“And the offer?” Nichols asked, making Danny return back on track with his story. Danny just shrugged._  
>  _"Well…turned out my secret wasn’t the only secret he knew about. He offered me and Phantom investigation a place in his organization and a safe position under his protection. Financial support, equipment, dental, the whole package – in return he wanted us to do jobs for him and help him keep the city clean from ghosts.”_  
>  _Nichols still didn’t get it until Danny exhaled and turned back to look him in the eyes, “all that and he would sweeten the deal by taking care of Dalv Masters.”_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people!  
> How do you like human Walker and Ember?  
> I hope I didn't go over the top with them and kept them OC - well, as OC as if they had been humans in the 1920's  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you like
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, Vice End, New York, USA_

“Cheers,” Tucker said and made a toast to the trio’s table as they made their last order of drinks. 

Mr. Walker had parted with them just as stoic as he had greeted them and handed Sam a copy of the contract before leaving them for the night. 

Danny and the others had been curios about what kind of job he would hand them, but the mob boss had told them to wait for him to call them and all information would be handed once he needed them. 

Until then they were to do as they wanted. Run the Phantom investigation office if they wanted or not. Their pay wouldn’t change no matter how much they made by the side. 

“To ridicules good deals,” Tucker grinned and Sam rolled her eyes before joining them. 

“Still don’t trust this,” she reminded them, but drank nonetheless, “don’t come crying when he orders us to bump off someone in the night.” 

“Yeah, that surely what he needs a ghost for,” Danny replied sardonically and rotated his drink. Unlike his two hunters and friends the alcohol had no impact on him whatsoever and left him out of the fun such beverage would grand its enjoyer. 

Both Sam and Tucker was pretty deep in already. Sam, because she drank to get over their stupidity and Tucker, because he was living the dream. 

“Aw c’m on, Sammy-kins,” Tucker snickered and butted her with his elbow, “it’s not like this is the worse shit we have ever gotten ourselves into. Remember that time we had health-class and you and I had to take care of a flour sack and we went way too far into the role of parents and I kissed you by mistake?” 

Sam spit her drink and laughed unrestrained. 

“You promised never to tell anyone!” she giggled and wacked him in the back of the head. 

Tucker could only laugh, “well while we’re at it I might as well tell you about the time me and Danny hid in the girl’s changing room and was too afraid to leave when you walked in as the first of the girls.” 

“Tucker!” Danny screaked, but Sam was apparently too drunk to be offended. 

“You dogs!” she laughed and covered her mouth with a hand, “is it now I’m supposed to reveal I did the same thing with the girl from Latin class, when you guys changed before the rowing tournament against our rival school?” 

Now it was their time to laugh in shock and Danny hid the bottle under the table, now knowing that they had had _waaaay_ too much to drink. Facing them tomorrow would be an experience, that’s for sure. 

“Are you two sure you don’t want a cap home? It’s not like we can’t afford a taxi now,” Danny said, watching how they were both swaying and grinning like idiots. 

“We wanna take a portal!” Tucker insisted and Sam could only laugh and hang on him while shushing loudly. Danny sighed, but decided he could waste some of his energy resources on them. 

“Fine I get our coats, just keep it down, would you?” 

They just grinned in response and Danny left for the front with a shake of his head. Sometimes it was a real pain in the ass to be the eternal sober. Maybe he should go to the zone and finally fetch some deathblossoms. 

Make his own private distillery and keep in in a flask to pep up his drinks once in a while… 

Danny pushed that train of thoughts away, knowing that the taste of ghost liquor would only remind him of a certain person. 

“Wow, someone pissed in your drink or something?” 

Danny stopped and turned to Kemberly, who was leaning against pillar with a drink in hand and Tucker’s hat on her head. 

“Not really,” Danny replied tiredly and pushed his glasses up into his hair, “you’re done for the night or something? Stars normally don’t hide in the wardrobe section.” 

She pushed herself of the pillar and made him company with stilettoes in hand, as he made his way to the coat exchange and handed in his and the other’s tickets. 

She snorted as she saw his cheap coat, “I knew I’d seen you somewhere. You’re that popular ghost medium they’re always talking about in the occult paper sections. Couldn’t recognize you in a tux.” 

“Yeah well, I doubt that I will put up the effort to wear a tux in here as often, now that Phantom investigation got a contract with Walker.” 

“I see. So you, Sweet-cheeks and Killjoy will come here weekly?” she asked interested and Danny guessed they would. 

“I suppose so, can’t pass the offer of free service and great show, now can we?” he asked with a cocky smile and she returned it with one of her own. 

“Get a room!” Tucker grinned and pushed past them with a finished Sam in tow, “hey Kember, you should probably stay close to Danny – he’s buddy buddy with Walker now. He’s Phantom’s fan nr. one!” 

Danny laughed forced and led Tucker in the direction of the street, before he could spill anymore unwanted information to Kemberly. 

“Ha! You slay me,” she grinned and returned the red fedora she had borrowed from him before the show, “Walker’s no one’s friend, but it’s sweet that you guys think so highly of yourself.” 

“Someone have to,” Danny replied and nodded to bid her goodnight. 

“Wait!” Kember added and suddenly looked everything than self-assured, “you guys really solve hauntings? As in catching ghosts and stuff?” 

“What’s it to you?” Sam asked suspiciously and had to lean into Tucker to keep her balance. 

Kemberly pursed her rosy lips, “well, I live in this apartment building. It’s pretty old, but it has a nice view and location. But strange fires have started to occur around. The police have no clue what’s causing it…my neighbors say it’s because the building is haunted.” 

Danny hadn’t seen that coming, but turned to her with a more business-like manner, “you want us to come take a look? Fire-based ghost are pretty common, but I’ve never head of a ghost causing fires like that.” 

“Could you come look at it now?” she continued and rubbed her arm awkwardly, “I know it’s in the middle of the night, but I don’t really feel safe going alone –” 

“Danny can go take a look,” Tucker interrupted and pushed the half-protesting Sam to the doors, “I’ll take a cap with Sam while you two check it out.” 

“Wait,” Danny called, but Tucker had already made it to the street, but not before sending Danny a pretty obvious wink and thumbs up. 

Kemberly send him a smirk, “do you guys mix work with blind dates or something?” 

Danny groaned on the inside, but reserved a somewhat neutral expression for her, “only when Tucker’s on duty, come on, let’s go see that place of yours.”     

The apartment building was an old Edwardian complex, rebuild and unbuild several times, but despite being a grandpa amongst buildings, it has its own old fashion charm, that made you easily forgive it for its weak lighting and worn floors. 

Danny could easily see this as a haunted sight, as Kember lead the way to the third floor and showed him the place of the latest fire. 

“The neighbors were quick enough to call the fire department, so it didn’t spread,” Kember explained as Danny took a look inside the burned apartment and ran a hand across the darkened doorframe. 

“But the building next door wasn’t that lucky. It’s nothing but scraps now,” she added and Danny peered out one of the floor windows to find workers clearing the spot of the burned remains that had once been an apartment building. 

“I’m not really catching any ghost signature,” he mumbled as he made his core waving the place. As said he didn’t pick up any ghostly signature, but that didn’t mean that this place wasn’t haunted, just that the ghost wasn’t present at the moment. 

Kember scoffed and crossed her arms, “you can tell just like that? I thought you needed to use some creepy instruments or summon that ghost of yours or something to do anything.” 

“His name is Phantom,” Danny replied and scratched the wallpaper to see if it would get loose, “and I only summon him in case of a ghost showing. Which isn’t really the case right now and the instrument thing is more Tucker’s style. Does the arson attacks happen at day or nighttime?” 

“Both. But mostly around early morning and late night,” she retorted and looked around anxiously, “should I pay you for investigating, or can it wait 'til when you’ve solved the case?” 

Two men interrupted them as they walked up the stairs. The elderly man leading pointed to the burned apartment, “that’s the place, sunny, get it fixed up will ya?” 

The worker just nodded and passed Kemberly and Danny to walk into the burned apartment, but not before taking his hat of for Kemberly. The older man scoffed and pushed him in. 

“Ignore her, kid, she’s too expensive for you.” 

Danny was going to tell the elderly man a thing or two, but Kemberly took his arm and lead him away, “just ignore him. Mr. Hill just angry because he doesn’t get enough at home.” 

“I heard that, you pesky harlot!” Mr. Hill yelled after them, but Kember had already led Danny to the next floor and stopped at a door with her name on it. 

“You wanna come in for coffee or something? 

Danny really felt like going home to sleep, but hated being rude – his mother’s raising he suspected. 

“I really should be going, Kemberly.” 

“Please?” she pleaded, “I would feel safer with you around, tough guy.” 

Danny didn’t doubt that and his hero-complex got the best of him. He couldn’t hold back a whistle after entering. Despite the building being old enough to collapse by itself, Kemberly had made herself quite a home. 

Scene-like draping and curtains hung heavy and atmospheric from every corner of the place. Creating the illusion of being backstage of a scene or in the haram of some fairytale sultan’s palace. 

Most of it was in blue or black colors and adored by knickknacks and trinkets of sculls and feathers. 

It reminded him a bit of Sam’s style, just more dramatic and less occult. If Sam had been more into music and performance, than books and Japanese art, they could have had a lot in comment. 

An old gramophone with a large horn of polished cobber was playing a slow tune and the smell of coffee seeped from the kitchen Kember had vanished into. 

Danny knew it was wrong to snoop, but stopped anyway as he found a little group of picture frames and picked them up one after another. 

He recognized Kemberly on most of them at different ages. Most showed her posing with other entertainers and flashy people at different stages and different clubs. 

You could almost map out her way to _Vice End_ by following the pictures, as her costumes and friends turned more professional and wealthier over time. There was no picture before her teens other than a single photo of a little girl and a man in a uniform. 

He held a stoic demeanor around him, leaving very little life in his eyes, but the little girl next to him seemed to challenge him on that part with her utter empty expression. 

Danny hurried to put it back and move away from the frames, as Kemberly returned from the kitchen and placed the tray with coffee on a delicate table, looking like a stray wind could send it crushing. 

“If you’re looking for my underwear it’s in the second drawer,” she noted without taking her eyes of the pot she was pouring from. 

“I wasn’t snooping,” Danny hurried to defend, but she just waved him off with a cheeky smirk. 

“Go open it anyway, I think I left my sugar bowl in there for saving or something.” 

“And that’s not weird at all,” Danny mumbled and began searching for the bowl among the layers of strings and laces. 

“Says the man who makes a living from killing ghosts.” 

“Banish. I Banish them, I don’t kill,” he corrected and fished said sugar bowl out of the drawer like he suspected the stockings and brassieres might come to life and bite his hand. 

She just shrugged, before pointing a thumb behind her, “oh and could you get the two chairs behind the Safire blue drapes? Be careful not to strain your back, they’re heavy as…” 

The last of that sentence died out between her lips as Danny had already picked up both old fashion throne-chairs and walked to her without as much as uttering a sound. 

“Wow you’re stronger than you look. Nice lifting there, big six,” Kember noted dumbfound and watched him a little baffled as he set the chairs like they were light as paper. 

“No mention,” Danny replied to hide his inner chastising. Cursing himself for forgetting the rule of hiding his ghost strength while being around other people than Tucker and Sam. 

“You’re a lot different from how the papers make you seem,” she continued as they took a seat and Danny watched as she served for him. 

“How so?” 

“I don’t know, boy-cheek. It’s just that they make you sound so serious and mystifying. Like a magician or something. The tall, dark mysterious man fortunetellers always sell women at the boardwalks by the beach. But really you’re just a badly dressed guy with bigger eyes than what’s good for you.” 

“I’m not that badly dressed,” Danny defended, but the roll of her eyes told him otherwise. Danny scoffed and watched as she tugged up her feet to sit in lotus-position and picked up a guitar besides the table. Clearly not caring about table manners or rules of a lady’s act. 

Again, a trait in comment with Sam. He listened as she ran her delicate hands across the strings, making a note or two fill the apartment. 

“I’m planning to make a new song,” she explained and added a new variation to the notes, “but instead of a piano, I’ll like it to be just my guitar…and maybe a drummer. Something new that’s not jazz. You know what I mean?” 

“Not really,” he admitted, but liked the melody, reminded him of a nursing rhythm, just faster. 

“It’s not that I don’t like being a jazz-singer,” she added and hummed to the melody, “but I’ll have this dream of creating something of myself. Making a name. Something people won’t forget. Something they’ll remember.” 

Danny just shrugged. Being famous wasn’t a thing that concerned him much. Yes, he had gotten some publicity from the press and people of New York, but actually fame? Danny had enough problems concerning immortality as it was. 

He was saved from his gloomy thoughts as she surprised him by picking out what seemed to be a ball of paper from the guitar’s sound-hole. Snatched a new piece of paper from the table behind her and stuffed it into the guitar, all while ignoring his curious expression. 

“…what are you doing?” 

“Changing the sound, duh,” she replied and rummage through the insides of the guitar to arrange the balls of paper the way she wanted, “it’s gonna be my thing. My special sound.” 

Danny shook his head and took a sip of his coffee, “whatever you say.” 

“You play anything yourself, hot stuff?” 

“I used to play the piano, but not anymore.” 

“How so?” she asked, adjusted the guitar until it sounded to her likening. 

Danny camouflaged his unease by sipping his coffee, “I just don’t.” 

She scoffed at his weak reply and put down the guitar. He protested as she suddenly leaned forward and stole his glasses from his head, he had all forgotten he had pushed into his hair with a flirty smirk. 

Danny scrunched his nose as she bobbed it with a manicured nail and giggled, “it’s funny. I thought it was just the gossip sections being silly, but you do have the eyes of a soldier, Danny-boy. My father had eyes like that and scars to explain. But I don’t see as much as a spot on you, though.” 

Danny didn’t know how to respond to that and snatched back the glasses before she could put them on and discover they had no perception. So much for hiding his old identity. 

“Maybe I just heal fast,” he said without better to say and placed the glasses on his face. 

She pouted, but didn’t try stealing them back. Instead she pointed to a pack of camels on the drawer behind him. 

“Butt me, would you?” 

Danny decide to humor her instead of telling her he wasn’t her delivery boy. She was a client after all and Phantom investigation treated its customers with equal service, no matter how annoying they turned out to be. 

She might have guessed something like that was the case, ‘cause she watched him light a cigarette between his lips with a smug expression. 

She took the lid cigarette and nodded to the pack, “you don’t want one?” 

Danny shook his head with a tired voice, “the taste brings up bad memories.” 

“What? Someone stubbed you or something? I don’t see any scars.” 

Danny scoffed and ran a hand through his raven tresses, “well he never used a cigarette on me…but as I said I heal fast. 

He had said it in a light neutral tone, but despite offering it as a joke, Kember seemed to see right through him and downcast her hazel eyes. Stubbed her cigarette with a low voice, “I’m sorry. My father used to beat me to. Where are yours now?” 

“Dead,” Dany replied in a sober tone. The answer stated the truth, since his father actually had been dead since his birth and the man of the actual conversation had been dead since yesterday. 

“I really should be going, you know,” Danny continued and felt the awkwardness increase, “thanks for the coffee, but it’s late and really I shouldn’t be here like this.” 

“Why?” she asked challenging, “because of what my landlady might think?” 

“Because of what Walker might do,” Danny replied and tried to keep down the annoyance in his voice, “you’re his girl, what was I thinking going home with you like this? If he doesn’t know by now, he’ll find out soon enough and then I’ll be screwed.” 

“I’m not his girl,” she scowled and stubbed her cigarette hard enough to twist it, “I just sing there, I’m nobodies girl, you hear me?” 

Danny stood and send the little lady a tired glance, “I thought you said you were a moll?” 

“Being a gangster’s girl, doesn’t mean his slut,” she stated furiously and stood to open the door wide, “I don’t have to take shit like this from a dick like you or anybody. I’m an artist, not a dumb Dora for men to use – now scram!” 

“Fine,” Danny scowled and grabbed his hat and coat. She slammed the door hard enough to make the frame rattle and Danny rolled his eyes. 

“Singers,” he muttered and opened a portal to drop into. He might as well go check out Vlad’s place to close that portal and find those pages now he was at it.     

The lazy swilling smoke of the cigarette twilled into the air and vanished as it was dissolved in the silent darkness of the study. 

Shelves of heavy tomes and art pieces’ money couldn’t buy alone, created the interior of the room along with the dark mahogany furniture, whose lacquered surfaces reflect the fire smoldering in the large fireplace. 

In a corner, a grand phonograph played a classic piece on a tolerable level and mixed into the sound of the night’s howling outside the tall window. 

The only light source other than the fireplace, came from said cigarette and it moved slowly as its owner lifted it to his lips. Exhaled and allowed the smoke to fill his lungs and then held it a second or two before releasing it with a slow exhale. 

Vlad Masters sighed and tapped the cigarette at the edge of a crystal bowl to get rid of the ashes at the end. 

He stared into the fire with an unreadable look, eyes slightly glassy from the amount of deathblossom he had mixed into his whisky and stormy emotions running through his heart. 

Vlad’s thoughts had been on one particular person since yesterday’s evening and even the new Persian rug that covered the floor in the study had something to do with said person. Daniel had order him assassinated. 

If Vlad hadn’t been the one violated by this himself, he wouldn’t have believed his little badger to be capable of it. Daniel had never been someone to allow others to fight his battles and never one to lust for other’s death – not even his greatest foes. 

Vlad had no illusions about whenever Daniel loathed him. He just didn’t really care as much as some might thought he should. He might have wronged the younger man, but it had always been with Daniel’s own good in mind. 

Vlad might have gone overboard and placed his own wants above the other’s, but really, Daniel would soon come to learn that Vlad was the only person in the world that could ever make him happy. 

The only one to ever survive him. The only one to ever understand him. Love him truly. 

But no matter how much he loved and adore the other halfa to the center of his core, none of it changed that he had found himself attacked last night by four ghost hunters. 

Vlad had known that the city owned its share of hunters and taking that into thought before having his mansion build, but actually becoming a target of such hunters had never really occurred to him. Vlad was excellent at keeping his ghost identity a secret. 

He had always been cautious and even changed his ghost-half’s appearance to resembles his own less. 

That included more distinct face features and style, but lucky for him, Plasmius had always possessed a color palette so unlike any humanoid creature, that he was sure not to be recognized – unlike Daniel, who’s ghost-half seemed more human with its toned tint and slightly more normal green irises. 

It still surprised Vlad that none other than the Chief of police had figured out the connection between Fonten and Phantom, when they looked so alike. Vlad would have eliminated said Mr. Wes Weston if the man hadn’t been such a laughingstock by his own peers. 

No. The police were no threat to him or Daniel. The Guys in White was. 

Vlad had been in the middle of changing for the dinner Daniel was to attend with him, when his shield had detected three humans penetrating and running to his mansion. 

Vlad had been in a mix of annoyance and curiosity of what these humans had on heart. 

At first, he had taken them for thieves or maybe even daring paparazzies, who wanted a picture of one of New York’s wealthiest business men, but such stupidity had soon been killed as the three humans had broken into the mansion with force and sought him out with guns. 

They had killed his duplicate without a second of hesitation and made ready to plant false evidence of a bootleg affair gone wrong, when Plasmius had decided to take the men by surprise with five other duplicates. 

The men hadn’t stood a chance and to his amusement, they had even seemed shocked to leaned that Dalv Masters was half-ghost. 

Vlad had decided to make it clean and as little messy as possible, and just broken the neck on the leader while the rest had watched from the chairs he had bound them in. 

Two of them had proven too tough to talk, but the fourth and youngest had broken down soon enough. Vlad had killed the other two with a bullet each and sat down to get some information out of the poor human. 

The man had been nothing but a grown kid and from what Vlad could understand from his nervous blabbering, nothing but a newly recruited agent in a ghost hunting organization he so charmingly called “The Guys in White”. 

Said organization had said Vlad nothing, but when Walker’s name popped up in the conversation things had turned clear. 

As a successful businessman not caring for getting his hands dirty, Vlad had made his deals with different gangsters to make it to the top. 

Anything else would be stupid, if not unwise in a city like New York and Walker had been one of the mob bosses Vlad had paid his part to, but never really had directly contact with. 

Apparently, that had been a mistake. 

In making a deal with Danny Fonten, Mr. Walker had found Dalv Masters to be a person that could be sacrificed for the sake of having a half-ghost on his good side. 

It was a logically choice, but apparently, no one had informed Walker that Dalv Masters was a half-ghost as well. 

Vlad would like to think that Daniel had kept that little detail to himself to give Vlad a chance, but he knew from experience that Daniel probably just had forgotten to mention it or simply just thought it was a given, that a person who knew about his ghost-half would know about Vlad’s secret as well. 

Vlad had to admit he had been stunned to learn of such betrayal from Daniel’s side and had threatened to throw the agent into the Unworld just to be sure that he wasn’t lying. 

But despite everything, the agent stuck to his story. Danny Fonten had been exposed as half-ghost by the Guys in White, taken in for a deal he couldn’t refuse by Walker and has been offered the assassination of Dalv Masters to make him more willing. 

Apparently, a pair of agents shadowing Daniel had witnessed the little ordeal back at the restaurant and guessed that Daniel could hold a wish of getting rid of the older gentleman. 

Vlad knew he should be angry at Daniel – and a great part of him was – but in a way, this made them even. He had ordered to have his friends and sister killed. Daniel had ordered him dead. 

He couldn’t really find it in him to be angry at Daniel, even though he would have to teach him a thing or two, but Vlad had never really been endangered. Just astonished by the young man’s new antics. 

No, Daniel was not to blame, but Mr. Walker was a whole other story. 

Vlad inhaled deeply with a frown and let out a huff of smoke. Grinding his teeth together. 

This Walker could have acted as a normal hunter and sought out to kill Daniel, but instead he had bound the young halfa to his side with Vlad supposed death. Forced Daniel to work for him and bow down to him – him, a mere human! 

The thought sickened Vlad. Daniel was a powerful creature of unthinkable dimensions just as himself. Not a rare pet for a dirty human to use as he pleased. Daniel didn’t belong to anyone than him and still Daniel was his own. 

Vlad’s prince and powerful equal. 

He had an idea or two about what Walker could use Daniel for and the thought didn’t sit well with the older gentleman. 

Vlad had never been the one to think that if you couldn’t have something, no one could – but if you couldn’t have something right away, you better make sure that no one else beat you to the punch. 

He might have promised the agent to let him leave in one piece if he told everything and of course he had kept his promise. The agent had stayed in one piece. The blood had been a whole other thing. 

Vlad should probably learn to control his temper, but there was no way around it – the Persian rug with the huge stain of blood would have to go. 

He had stayed on a low profile the following day and made the agent call the office before killing him of to make sure they believed the mission accomplished. Walker would believe him to be dead and Vlad would let it stay that way until he had made a plan for further move. 

Thought things through. 

An old impulse birthed by drunkenness and self-pity made the fifty-nine-year-old halfa pull out his pocket watch and opened it with a soft click. 

The old clock ticked on a steady pace, counting the rush of second, minutes and hours for the man even though time was an indifferent to his existence. On the inside of the silver lid an old black and white photograph greeted him with two smiling figures. 

He could still remember the day the picture had been taken. Daniel and he had still been close, as Vlad hadn’t spilled his feeling for the other yet. 

They had been visiting London and been deep in conversation about core functions, when Daniel had stopped him outside a studio and suggested them having a picture taken. 

Vlad had decided to humor the boy as he had so often and sat down to have a picture taken with him. But of course, having a normal picture taken wasn’t like Daniel. 

Nothing ordinary ever was. So Vlad had played along after some coaxing and sat down to smile for five minutes straight together with Daniel. Both wearing neckclamps to keep their heads completely still and looking natural. 

The finished product had been a picture of them smiling – a little strained and forced, but a picture of them smiling nonetheless. 

The photographer had thought them mad, but Vlad still found himself smiling every time he laid eyes on this little piece of precious memory. 

His thumb ran over the boy’s smiling features and honest happiness. A rare sight these days. 

“Daniel…” 

As if mumbling his name had been a spell, Vlad froze as he felt the man’s ghost-signature getting near. 

Vlad’s own signature was suppressed as always and would keep him from being detected, keeping him from being found by other ghostly interties. He decided to stay that way for now. 

He continued to stare into the fire as Daniel’s core stopped at his front door, waited a second and then phased inside.


	24. Revenge is never the answer – sex is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> previously in the fic
> 
> There was once a time when Vlad hurt Danny  
>  _Danny scooted back and hit his head against the headboard as Vlad crawled back to him, “wait! Vlad, no! No! I said no!”_  
>  _“Don’t care,” Vlad replied with a growl and slammed their mouths together._
> 
> Now Danny takes his revenge  
>  _“When I returned home I found a letter announcing that my apartment had been resigned and all my expenses paid for me. I had a day to pack my stuff and leave. A second letter told me to meet up at my new all-paid apartment by the river to receive the key and sign the needed papers with the estate agent.”_  
>  _Danny rubbed his arms and stared ahead with an empty look, “It was the bouquet of purple hyacinth that made me take Walker’s offer. I had sped enough time with Vlad’s old gardener, Mr. McHells to know what that flower meant. Forgiveness. I called Walker and told him I would take his offer. He promised to take care of Vlad before Saturday evening. Promised it would be quick. He promised a lot of things.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But Vlad survived  
>  _Vlad knew he should be angry at Daniel – and a great part of him was – but in a way, this made them even. He had ordered to have his friends and sister killed. Daniel had ordered him dead._  
>  _He couldn’t really find it in him to be angry at Daniel, no, Daniel was not to blame, but Mr. Walker was a whole other story._
> 
> * * *
> 
> ATTENTION: Change of fic title to "Be together but alone, as the for it has grown"  
> after it has come to my attention that the title of my fic scares readers away, I have decided to change the name and wanted to warn you before doing so at next friday's update. Just to clear all confusion about the current name of the fic, the title is actually a song by the artist Dillion and not a reference to any age difference between Danny and Vlad. If you haven't heard the song, do it.
> 
> also...  
> Well Vlad's still alive and Danny is about to waltz right into the lion's den - what will happen?  
> Well....there's going to be rape in this chapter, so if you don't like reading that, you can skip this chapter  
> enjoy? leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, the Masters mansion on East Egg, New York, USA_

Danny looked around the dark front hall and shuttered. 

There was no sign of police investigation or clues that could indicate that the press or neighbors had discovered the murder of Dalv Masters. Danny bit his lips. 

On one hand, that meant Vlad’s stuff hadn’t been touched and he would be able to find the pages of Sojourn’s journal and destroy the portal without being disturbed, but on the other hand…Vlad’s body would still be lying somewhere in the mansion. 

The images of Vlad laying cold and bloody in one of these rooms made Danny head spin with unease. Danny began to move from one room to the next at the first floor, debating on how to move on with his search and stopped as he stepped on a large piece of glass. 

The grand window of the dining hall had been broken in and the shards of glass littered the floor along with footprints of mud from the garden. 

Danny guessed it explained why the mansion was so cold and if he had been a police man, he would suggest that the intruder had entered the mansion this was. Walker’s men had probably wanted it to look like some mob ordeal. 

Just another man playing with the wrong kids and losing the game of the city. Danny didn’t doubt that Vlad had made criminal deals on the side. He was that kind of businessman after all and the times demanded it. 

Vlad had never been afraid to get his hands dirty. 

He had never been afraid of taking what he wanted. 

A sting of regret hit Danny and he sighed in the darkness. Mixed feeling rushed through him and he ran his hand along the table’s edge until he ended up next to the head chair. 

Danny pulled out the chair next to it and sat down for a second. Stared at the empty chair next to him at the end of the long hand-carved table. A dark crystal chandelier hanging silent above them. 

If things had been different, he would have been seated right here the night before. Eating some fancy dish in a tuxedo next to Vlad and listened to whatever bullshit he had on his mind. 

Probably something the man thought was debonair and clever. And most of the time it would have been. 

Vlad might have been a son of a bitch, but he was a smart one of that. Always knew what to say, always ahead of everyone else and ready with an argument that would twist the conversation in his favor. 

Smug bastard. 

Smug dead bastard. 

Danny stared at the empty chair, knew it would stay that way from now one. It was a strange feeling to be in the man’s home like this. 

Danny had accepted the man’s death back home just as easily as blinking, but now that he was right in the middle of the place Vlad had called home, he found it harder to accept reality. Getting close to the place of the crime scene made everything so vivid. 

To real. To close. 

He wondered if it would have been the same back when he left Vlad in the ruin of the castle. If he had returned to the ruins…would he had found it harder to believe the man to be dead as well? 

“But he survived,” Danny whispered and tapped a finger on the polish table surface. 

It was stupid to believe the man had survived this to, when Walker had personally called him to inform that Vlad had been taken care of, but Danny guessed he wasn’t going to believe it until he had seen the corpse with own eyes. 

His imagination created a graphic image and Danny pushed it away. 

Told himself to stop being such a coward. A little blood wasn’t going to make him faint. He had been the one to order Vlad’s death and now he would have to be a man about it and live with the consequences. 

Danny swallowed a lump. He had murdered the only other person of his own kind and things couldn’t be undone. There was no turning back now. 

Danny left the dining hall to continue his search for the pages and entrance to the possible lab, and phased into the second floor. Decided to be strategic and start with the master bedroom. 

Danny had to take a moment to calm down as he found the room. The striking resembles with the old bedroom he had once shared with Vlad was almost too much. 

The interiors and style was close to a copy of the old one and even though the sheets couldn’t be the same ones from the ruined castle, they felt the same as the old red ones. Danny lifted one of the sheets to his face. 

Even the smell was familiar. 

Danny’s mind struggled to decided whenever to destroy this place and all it represented, or curl up in those pillows and sheets to sleep for a long time. Danny didn’t know where the last had come from and shook his head. 

Let go of the sheets like he had burn himself on them. 

Danny ran a frustrated hand though his hair and his brain kicked into work to keep him busy. His detective mannerism took over as he ransacked the place to find what he had come for and then he could leave as soon as possible. 

The bedside table would have been too obvious, but Danny opened it anyway and frowned as he found a glass of pills amongst the usual. He read the prescription and lifted an eyebrow. 

Since when had Vlad needed pills to sleep? 

He let it be and decided to leave the room before he found or did something he would regret. If anything, he couldn’t leave any clues that he had been here in the first place. 

It needed to look like Vlad had been killed by mobsters and not a burglar taking a nap in his bed. 

His troubled head lead him to the next room, which turned out to be the private library and Danny guessed this would be the place if any. 

After a quick search, he concluded that the desk didn’t held any papers out of the ordinary and neither did any of the obvious book. Even the fireplace was ordinary and not a secret gateway to an even more secretive lab. 

He ran his hand across the long shelves of occult studies and recognized a lot of the titles Vlad had used to keep in the castle’s old library. Danny had spent enough time among those books to know them by heart and he examined some of the new additions in the collection. 

He couldn’t stop a smug smile from tugging in the corner of his mouth as he found an entire section dedicated to books about knitting. 

What a cheesehead. Knitting was for girls and old grannies with cats. 

“Meow.” 

Danny jumped a meter into the air with a very girly scream and cramped his heart as the white Persian strolled closer and began rubbing against his leg with a purr. 

Danny got his fearful heart under control and stare at the feline in surprise. He tilted his head as two golden eyes stared up at him with expectation. 

Danny swallowed, “…Maddie?” 

The fat cat digged its claws into his slacks to indicate she wanted to be lifted and Danny picked her up like he had done so many times before. 

The only change was the fact she had taken on some extra pounds and seemed to have grown into a bigger sized cat as well. He allowed her to rub her soft head into his cheek and inhaled her scent for a second. 

Still unable to believe she had survived the collapse of the castle. 

“You’ve been with that cheesehead all this time, girl?” he asked and she increased her purring like she could understand him and left a layer of white hair on his jacket. Danny felt tears collect at the corner of his eyes. 

The feline jumped out of his arms and Danny took a second to dry his eyes before following her to the table she had jumped onto. Danny guessed she hadn’t been feed since yesterday and reminded himself to find the kitchen before leaving. 

Search it for a sack of cat-food to bring home with him when they left. 

Danny eyed the tray of glasses and a decanter filled to the brim with an amber liquor. He already knew from experience that the 100-grand priced whisky inside would be mixed with deathblossom and he bit his lips. 

Decided to take a sniff just for old times’ sake. The sweet smell was familiar and better than he remembered. Memories of the sweet oblivion it had bestowed him in the past made him bite the inside of his cheek. 

He couldn’t take it with him without leaving a tray missing an obvious glass piece and he really didn’t have the time to go searching for a new decanter either. Danny knew it was stupid and reckless, but couldn’t stand the temptation and lifted the decanter to his lips. 

He sighed in content, it tasted better than the first time he had been offered/forced a glass of it. Maybe it came with age or a certain maturity of the taste-buds to really appreciate it? 

He shook as the burning fire spread down through his body, killing some of the cold he had suffered from the last past weeks and filled his empty stomach. 

Strange how things he thought would provoke bad memories actually helped him relax. 

“C’me on, Maddie,” Danny said and walked back to the corridor with the decanter in hand. 

Maddie followed willingly, rubbing against his legs when opportunity showed and watched him sipping from the decanter with curious eyes. 

He had emptied it before they reached the last room on the floor and he left the decanter on a side table by the door to the private study, telling himself that he would put it back when he had finished his search in here. 

He probably wouldn’t. 

Danny guessed it had been too long since he had a real ghost drink or eaten anything solid. 

He was already beginning to feel dizzy and maybe even seeing things, ‘cause for some reason the fire in the fireplace hadn’t died out by now. Danny slowly frowned and felt a shift in the atmosphere. 

He threw up an arm in reflex to block when a hand came up to grab his neck. 

Plasmius grinned with his arm locked in Danny’s grip and the younger man’s baffled expression changed to that of anger. 

“Come to grieve?” Plasmius asked with a hint of accusation and Danny pushed him of him with a growl and transformed. 

“If kicking a corpse is your definition of grief, then yes,” Danny sneered and fired an ecto-blast. 

Vlad threw up a deflecting shield and returned the favor with an even bigger blast. Danny shot forward, dodged the blast and aimed with a kick. Vlad turned intangible at the last second and send Danny flying with a round-house kick of his own. 

“No respect for the dead, I see,” Vlad snorted as Danny hit the wall and slide down, only to jump back into the fight, “tell me, what was the last straw, Daniel? The new apartment or the fact I sold the old one?” 

“The _bouquet_ ,” Danny yelled and sent the man back with a ecto-dice, “like you’re in any position to ask for my forgiveness, you son of a bitch!” 

Vlad dodged the last second and caught Danny’s ecto-blast, before sending it back with more energy and laughed darkly, “you can’t blame me for trying, Daniel.” 

“It’s Danny!” he snarled and struck to send his fist against the man’s face and hopefully break his nose, but missed in a moment of dizziness and fell into him instead. 

Plasmius grabbed him and slammed him against the wall, pinning him with his body and locked his hands above his head. 

“No, ‘Danny’ is a sobriquet of Daniel,” Vlad explained and ignored Danny’s struggles to get free, “and really, it’s about time you leave it behind, my boy. It’s too immature for a grown man to use.” 

“Says you, Vlad _imir_ ,” Danny scowled and made the older man smirk. 

“Hmm, touché.” 

The boldness born from alcohol and anger lifted a bit now that he was caught and Danny swallowed as he realized how close they had gotten. He blew a strand of hair of his face and watch the man with a tired expression. 

He should probably had known that no ghost hunter could have taken down a halfa like Vlad. He was way too powerful, too strong and just too full of himself to leave this life willingly. 

The guilt that had been eating him from the inside since yesterday dulled and finally disappeared. He hadn’t become a willing murder after all. Yippy. 

“You’re full of surprises,” Vlad grinned and leaned his forehead to Danny’s with a stupid chuckle. 

Lessened his grip on Danny’s writs a bit in an act of sheer folly, “I would never had believed you to be coldblooded enough to take the step as to have me ordered dead. I’m strangely proud of you, you little brat.” 

Danny sighed by the sight of the red eyes smoldering into affection. The man hadn’t returned from the dead for more than a minute and Danny was already getting tired of all the bullshit talking. 

And just to make it worse, something told him Vlad was just as shitfaced as himself. 

How swell. 

“Stop kidding yourself. I warned you I wasn’t a child for you to control, remember? You really believe you could threaten the live of my people a second time and get away with it?” Danny asked furious and scoffed unimpressed, “get a grip.” 

Plasmius shook his head, “then it’s time for a new truce I suppose. How about this? I won’t kill your little friends and you won’t hire anymore assassins, hmmm? How does that sound to you, badger?” 

Danny thought about it and guessed it was fair. He doubted that he would ever try hiring people to murder Vlad again anyway. 

Not only because that would be like sending people into a suicide mission, but because he really couldn’t go through the wild-ride of anxiety and guilt one more time. These two days had been nothing but dreadful and a waste of time. 

Really, he was only winning from this. 

“Ugh, fine. Guess that makes us even,” Danny grumbled and Vlad send him a strange look. 

“My thoughts exactly,” he retorted and closed the last space between them, as he pressed his lips to the younger male like he was going to devour him. 

Danny knew he should have ripped his hands free by now and punch the other into a coma, but he couldn’t find the strength for it tonight. 

To many fears and regrets had been bottled up for too long and now that they had been released at once, Danny was to empty to put up the will to play holy and continued the eternal fight. 

He was to tired, to drunk and to frustrated to push the man of him. Despite being the person Danny despised most in the world, Vlad had always known how to make him melt and writher in his hands. 

Falling back into Vlad’s arms was forbidden and wrong on so many levels, but tonight Danny couldn’t seem to care. He just wanted to forget and feel something for a change, even if that ‘something’ was a quick rough fuck. 

Take a break from reality and just accept the little bit of pleasure that had been offered him. Allow himself to let go for a change. He could blame himself in the morning when he was thinking straight again and suffering from regret and hungover. 

Vlad felt how the younger male suddenly pushed against him and opened his mouth willingly to let him in to play. Vlad wasn’t going to be the one to look this wild gift horse in the mouth and added more to the kiss to go deeper. 

Danny quickly tilted his head to give him more access, but challenged him for dominance with force and teeth for a time before losing the little game. 

Vlad couldn’t remember ever to have been challenged like this by the other and now that he thought about he, he couldn’t say he had ever taken Daniel while he was still in his ghost form. 

Vlad growled by the sudden burst of pain mixes with pleasure, as Daniel decided to attack his mouth wasn’t enough and tore his hands free to dig them into the older male’s back. 

Danny broke the rule of letting Vlad take his time with him and tore Vlad’s tunic open without a care for its survival. Ripped open the claps to the cape and pulled it off him without breaking the rough kiss or pace. 

Vlad wanted to see where this was going, but wasn’t late to taste the deathblossom on Daniel’s tongue. Concluding that this sudden boldness had been lured unto the surface by the sweet relief of alcohol. 

He could work with that. 

Plasmius shuttered as cold hands began to roam his chest with blunt nails and broke the kiss to run fevered kisses down the equal cold neck and collarbone. 

Phantom hissed in content as the black battle suit was opened and pulled down his shoulders and further down to his hips. 

Vlad pressed the other closer without a care for marks or bruises and grinned by the fact, that despite possessing a more mature frame and developed muscles, Daniel was still a bit lower than him and smaller in size. 

Vlad had often feared that Daniel would grow into gaining his father’s bulky build, but something could seem that Madeline’s gene pool had won in the end. 

And thank god for that. 

Vlad felt his arousal throb as he phased the rest of the suit of Daniel and discovered that he in the last seven years had developed legs and hips like a woman. 

In total, Daniel had grown into becoming a pleasing fusion of masculinity and effeminate. 

Vlad let out an animalistic hiss as Daniel bite his lower lip hard enough to drew ectoplasm and added the taste of iron to the already rough kiss. 

Vlad grabbed the back of young male’s knees and pulled him up against his hips to press him further up the wall. Grinded against him in a hard-maddening pace and intensified the kiss now that their mouths were at the same level. 

Strong legs locked around him and pressed him closer with an almost wild enthusiasm. 

Danny ignored the smile of his nemesis and buried his hands into Plasmius’ hair and pulled it to control the angle of the other halfa’s head. 

Felt how Vlad grew rock hard against his own arousal and forced the man closer with his thighs, filling the air with growls and static from energy. 

“For fuck sake – harder,” Danny ordered and Vlad complied, but not without stiffing for a second and Danny guessed he had shocked the man a bit by being the one to order around. 

Danny hissed and threw his head back as Plasmius grinded harder into him and phased the rest of his own cloths of. 

Leaving them both naked and Danny thanked him by digging his nails into the skin of those strong shoulder and drew lines of ectoplasm. 

Vlad shook by the biting feeling and threw the whitehaired man onto the nearest couch. They both ignored the toppled sofa table and the two lamps they send down crashing to the floor, as they both fought to get their will. 

Vlad wanted to be on top and get the other on his back, while Danny fought with teeth and nails to stay above the older male and keep his free movement. Vlad won as he created a compromise that took the younger male by surprise. 

Danny panted in a mix of heat and shock, as Vlad started leaving a trail of bites down his chest and continued down. 

Giving head had never been a sexual taboo between them, but it had always been Danny’s job to go down on the man, never the other way around. 

Danny continued to watch the man like he suspected the other to trick him and stop, but Vlad didn’t back out and took the younger man’s length into his mouth. 

Danny groaned and Vlad held his hips down to keep him from moving, but that didn’t keep Danny from making noises and bury his hands in Plasmius’ hair. 

The younger male’s voice increased with verbal commands, curses and incomprehensible moans, as Plasmius’ head bobbed and tongue swilled his length in a maddening pace. 

The blue hands continued to hold his tanned hips in check, but Danny gained back the control with the grip in those black tresses. 

“Fuck! Harder!” Danny cursed and groaned as Vlad added a bit of teeth, “arg, fuck! Do that again!” 

Vlad hadn’t been ordered around like this since boarding school, but actually found that this new demanding attitude of Daniel’s had turned him on in a way he hadn’t experience before. 

Dominating Daniel had always been a given and after the boy had stopped fighting him in the past, it had seemed like sweet victory – but this? This was a whole new victory to claim. 

Daniel might be difficult and fighting him, but not out of fear or to get away from him. Not anymore. Daniel clearly wanted him as much as he wanted the younger male, but he would challenge him to be the one of control. 

Vlad tasted Daniel orgasm and knew he could never let him go after this. He had to claim him all over again, no matter the cost or damage. 

Daniel had to be his for good. 

Danny was still high from his orgasm when the well-known sensation of Vlad’s energy warned him of the incoming teleportation and Danny narrowed his eyes and send out an invisible duplicate to go fetch his gadget-belt along with his battle suit. 

Vlad was too busy claiming his mouth to take notice and Danny scowled as they landed on the bed. Plasmius predatory expression told Danny what he already knew. 

Vlad wanted him beneath him for the rest of the night to have his way and the smug prick probably thought it reasonable now that he had degraded himself to go down on Danny. 

Well, they would see about that. 

Vlad let out a roar as Danny bit into his collarbone and left his share of marks on the already blue skin. 

Vlad didn’t let out on the fight and grinded into him hard enough to leave bruises, as they bit and scratched each other on the sheets to show the other just how mean they could get. 

The shouts and groans held no affection and neither did the bruising kisses, almost teeth against fangs, but love wasn’t on the dish tonight. Payback was. 

Danny called his duplicate fourth in silence and grabbed the new invention that had been handed him behind Vlad’s back. 

The older halfa didn’t see it coming before he suddenly found his wrist cuffed and Danny kicked him unto his back and secured the other wrist in the turning. Effectively restraining Plasmius to the headboard and leaving him defenseless. 

Danny snickered, still high of deathblossom fumes and the sweet promise of revenge, as Vlad realized what had happened and tried to phase through the cuffs. The ghost-proof metal resisted and kept Vlad to the headboard. 

Shorting out his superhuman strength as well as the rest of his powers. He growled furiously. 

“Daniel, release me this instant!” 

Danny’s lips cracked into a vicious grin, “I don’t think so, Vladdy. You’ve had your fun with me for too long. I think it’s time we become actual equals.” 

“I’m warning you –” 

“No,” Danny snarled and grabbed the other by the throat and pressed, “I’m the one calling the shots now, Vlad. You really think you could come crashing back like this and fuck me into submission like when I was seventeen? Oh, _hell no_.” 

Vlad didn’t exactly need to breath while in his ghost form, but was still heaving for air when Danny finally let go. His red eyes blazing with wrath and indignation. 

“You’re drunk,” the man warned, “you will regret this, Daniel. You’re too much of a hero to pull a stunt like this.” 

“Aww, look at you. Worrying about my sanity like you actually care, but look at the good side – I could be sober and just a being a monster, planning to rape you. Hold you down while molesting you to death. Force myself on you. Who would do that anyway? Anyone in mind, Vlad?” 

Danny snickered lowly to the sight of Vlad’s widened eyes and ran a hand of mocking care across the infuriated halfa’s cheek. Ignored all the alarm bells and voices of reason in the back of his head. 

Too drunk to care or stop while the idea of serving Vlad his own medicine still felt like fun. 

“That’s right, you’re the bitch tonight.” 

“I AM NOT!” Vlad roared childishly and blinked in shook as Danny slapped him with the back of his hand. 

“Don’t make me gag you,” Danny warned icily, moved to straddled the man as he leaned over him and secured that the cuff was tightly locked. 

Ignored the fact that Vlad was staring up at him like he had never seen him before now. Danny guessed he hadn’t. 

Even though this was a boldness created from the indifference alcohol ever so lovely injected into the brain and blocked out all thoughts of consequences and morals, Vlad was wrong when he called Danny a hero. 

The man could shave and color his hair, take a new name and make up new games, but in seven years he hadn’t changed a bit. He was still the same. 

Danny wasn’t. 

A lot of things had changed during those seven years. A lot of thing had changed already before he left the man and Vlad would surely come to see that Danny wasn’t the little lost boy anymore. 

It was time Vlad learned that you can’t take a man for a child when you’re at his mercy. 

Danny held the man’s eyes without any show of emotion or regret and placed his hand flat on the blue chest. Vlad had been seconds from believing the worst, but stopped his rant of protests as Danny hadn’t acted out any of the scenarios the older man had feared. 

Danny could see that Vlad believed he had backed out. Returned to his senses and stopped the madness that was forcing the man to be bottom. Danny just scoffed and made his hand go intangible. 

Vlad stared, “what is this –” the rest of the question drowned in a gasp and the man’s back arced from the bed with a strangled cry. 

Danny exhaled slowly and cupped his intangible hand around the hot fire core centered in the man’s chest. It was almost scalding to the touch, but Danny knew what he was doing and ran a thumb across the core. 

Vlad trashed with a series of moans and cries, fought to get free and rolled his hips in desperate search for release. Danny smirked, knew what pleasurable torture the man was going through and added an extra edge by pressing his fingers around the core. 

If Vlad had been capable of producing a ghostly wail, the mansion would have been no more. 

Pink smoke had begun to huff from Plasmius’ gasps and pants, and even through the haze of deathblossom and sick fascination, Danny noticed that his own breath had become green. 

Vlad had gotten awfully hard beneath him and Danny knew that if he didn’t do anything soon, Vlad would end up coming if he didn’t faint from the grasp around his core alone. 

Danny continued to prod and pet the core slowly, as he leaned over to the bedside table and opened the drawer. Having already searched through if for the pages beforehand, he knew its content and fished out one of Vlad’s red bands along with a bottle of lube. 

Saving the bottle for later, he sneaked the band around the man’s painful length and kept him from coming. He exhaled a huff of thick green smoke and felt how Vlad’s hips circles helplessly under him, as he twisted his fingers in the older halfa’s chest. 

Relished in the broken moan and sobs he drew out of Vlad. 

“It’s’ strange…strange how confused and ashamed you made me back then…” Danny whispered quietly. 

Another poke and a twist had Vlad sputtering out a snack branded curse and Danny tilted his head with lidded eyes. 

“You fucked me against my will and bend me down on any surface in range, but for years I believed I deserved it. Because of how much I liked it. Even though you hurt me, you made it feel so good. So fucking good. Made me see starts every time.” 

He sighed and curled his fingers around the overheated core, took in the resulting tremor that ran through the trembling man. 

“Opening you up with a saw or ripping your limbs of one by one would never justify what you did to me. I thought you were dead and that didn’t even comfort me. I could fuck you dry and even use a knife instead of my dick – and still it would never be enough.” 

“Daniel,” Vlad moaned, but was ignored. 

“So, I asked myself, how do I show Vlad just how much he put me through?” 

He squeezed the core. 

Vlad howled with the raw edge of a man on the brink of hyper stimulation and tensed to the unbearable. The two black rings transformed around Plasmius’ midsection and revealed the man underneath. 

The red eyes became blue and rolled into the back of his head. Danny released the core and watched the fainted man. 

He waited for regret or even an impulse of self-hatred to appear, but something would seem that the deathblossom still held their numbing power over him and Danny decided he liked it to stay that way. 

Danny lifted himself from the now dressed man, uttered a giggled he had no idea where had come from and started undressing Vlad’s unconscious human form. 

Phased of the high-waisted slacks, suspenders, and tailored suit probably worth more than Danny could imagine. He rose from the bed to go searching for another decanter and returned to see Vlad still hadn’t moved an inch. 

Still out cold and needy for a release, as the band around the base of his length had kept him from coming. 

Danny returned to his position and guzzled down half the decanted by himself, before tipping it and poured it onto Vlad’s stomach, chest and lastly head. 

The last part made him return to the living – or at least half-living and Danny took advantage of his disorientation by licking his cheek and dipping his tongue into his mouth. Took back up the fight for dominance and sound of teeth against teeth. 

Vlad groaned into the deathblossom-flavored kiss and Danny began licking the liquored from the man’s skin, leaving a brand of bites, licks and marks down the jumping muscles. 

The cuffs rattled as Vlad’s hands fought a bitter fight to get free, but neither could tell if it was to hit Danny or touch him. Probably both. 

“Daniel, please,” Vlad whispered spend and desperate, but Danny wasn’t turning merciful just because of a little pleasing and the whisky help him stay coldhearted. 

“Please what?” 

Vlad yelled as Danny dipped his tongue into his belly button and sucked on the sweat and whisky covered hips. Avoiding the throbbing length of the man, that wept and begged to be released. 

“St-stop it…argh!” 

Danny watched the mark of teeth he had left on the skin and licked up the blood, eye-fucking the man with no means of stopping or go easy on him. 

“’Stop’ never worked with you and what did you usually answer when I begged?” Danny said and acted like he had a hard time remembering, as if every word hadn’t been etched into his mind with every trust, kiss and grip, “oh yeah. _I don’t care._ ” 

Danny had had his suspicion, but scoffed anyway as he felt how tight the man was, as he pushed in the first lubed finger. Vlad cursed in renewed anger and sugary curses, but could do nothing as a second and third digit followed the first. 

Danny watched the man’s expression twist and convulsed in pain and anger. Took in every second and trusted in a slow pace, scissored his fingers and loosed the hole with trained fingers. 

Recalling those times Vlad made him prepare himself for him to watch. 

“Relax,” Danny retorted mockingly, “it’s going to hurt more if you don’t.” 

“I know y-you, boy,” Vlad spat with a painful expression and tried to breath normal, “you wo-won’t be able t-to carry t-this out. You can’t get it up t-to for this!” 

Danny curled his finger as an answer and watched the man’s pain turn into blinding pleasure. Poked his prostate again and again and again. 

“Maybe, maybe not. But all those sweet sounds have actually made me a little turned on, cheesehead,” Danny replied with a wry smile, taking in the power he held over Vlad’s pleasure and body. 

Used all the little tricks Vlad had unknowingly taught him through those years he had fucked his way into his body and mind. Vlad was a moaning sweaty mess from Danny’s ministration and had actually began to relax into it. 

Vlad’s opinion about this whole situation was a mess as well. This new side of Daniel was something entirely new. 

Of course, the deathblossoms was to blame, but Vlad would have been an imbecile to believe Daniel didn’t held some resentment of his person. But taking it out on him during _sex!?_

Daniel took out his frustration on his lips, made Vlad groan into the kiss as those experienced fingers and intoxicating heat engulfed him. 

Vlad would never agree to any argument about him deserving anything. What he had done to Daniel had never been out of wrongdoing like what the other was showing him now. 

And hadn’t he always put Daniel’s pleasure before everything else? 

The younger halfa removed his fingers and Vlad forced himself to relax. 

Yes, he had always taking his sweet time to ease Daniel into this touch, even though the younger often had fought him until no end. Now he found that he had taught him well. 

Though he would never have imagined anything like this could have evolved from his efforts. 

He felt the fear return as he old apprentice lined up between his legs. The prove that Daniel wasn’t a mere boy anymore was standing hard and threatening before him. He was still smaller than Vlad, but still impressive. 

The Manson woman had been a fool to let Daniel go. 

The thought of the shameless female made Vlad’s old possessiveness return to the surface and set the situation in a new and more attractive light. 

He should have known that no woman could satisfy Daniel like he could. His little badger could tell him he hated him, despised him, wanted him dead and gone – but even at his worst, Daniel would still end up in his arms. 

And really…Vlad couldn’t expect to be the one topping forever, now could he? Being equal meant in every aspect of their relationship – even sex. 

If his little halfa needed this in order to overcome some silly ideas of wrongdoing from Vlad’s side, then Vlad would endure it and let Daniel has he way for once. 

And if he had to be honest, this hadn’t been the worst that could have overcome him. Rather the exact opposite. 

Daniel sure knew how to keep him alive. 

Vlad bit hard into Daniel’s bottom lip as the younger man pushed his length inside him. 

Both groaned in the madness that was their bodily reunion after seven long years and took out all the hatred on each other, that no heated fight, battle banter or hurtful accusations could ever hope to come close to or reach for real. 

Danny slammed forward, pushed Vlad into the mattress as he pinned him in a hard trust and roughly hit his sweet spot to increase the torture. The older man’s cries broke into deep moan and he was shut up by cold lips. 

Danny put up a pace and likewise moaned into Vlad’s mouth, as a tongue invaded his and took his breath away. Danny continued to trust roughly into the man, pounding his cock into the tight slick walls and lost himself to the feeling. 

Vlad took it all, every nerve feeling like on fire, the pleasure coursing through his blood, the stimulation wrecking his mind and left him with nothing but instincts and deep dark desires to rely on. 

Made him groan into the kiss as a hand grabbed his member to stroke the already pressured build-up that threatened to tear his insides apart. 

Danny increased the speed and felt Vlad’s legs tighten around his waist. Vlad arched from the bed, dug his heels into the younger man’s back and pushed Danny even deeper. Forced them closer and threw his head back in a howl. 

Danny took the chance to attack his neck and added a new series of bites and marks equal those he had given Plasmius. Marked the skin like he himself had been marked so many times in the past. 

Knowing that they would heal the morning after and pumped the man harder as a compensation for what he couldn’t place on the man as a permanent reminder. 

Danny broke the kiss to fight for air and buried his face in Vlad’s neck, his numb head getting overlarded with sensation and white blinding lightning crossed his drunk mind. 

Vlad was uttering nonsense or maybe it was comprehensible and it was Danny who just couldn’t put his head around it. In any case, Danny was too far into his own ecstasy to care. 

Hurting Vlad had slipped his mind in favor of getting to the edge and he began to remove the band without thought. 

Somewhere in the back of his blurred mind he had had some plan about keeping Vlad from coming, to show him what it felt like to have you had pleasure used against you, but now that he was close to coming himself, his pride told him that coming before Vlad would be a sign of weakness. 

And he couldn’t be weak in the man’s presence, now could he? He was supposed to win this…or something. 

Before hitting the edge, Danny released Vlad’s length completely from the band. Vlad came harder than he had ever imagined he could and screamed Daniel’s name. 

He could almost believe the other had groaned his.


	25. Things can’t go back to what they were and no immortal is resistant to time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> Danny lost control  
>  _“You’re drunk,” the man warned, “you will regret this, Daniel. You’re too much of a hero to pull a stunt like this.”_  
>  _“Aww, look at you. Worrying about my sanity like you actually care, but look at the good side – I could be sober and just a being a monster, planning to rape you. Hold you down while molesting you to death. Force myself on you. Who would do that anyway? Anyone in mind, Vlad?”_  
>  _Danny snickered lowly to the sight of Vlad’s widened eyes and ran a hand of mocking care across the infuriated halfa’s cheek. Ignored all the alarm bells and voices of reason in the back of his head. Too drunk to care or stop while the idea of serving Vlad his own medicine still felt like fun._  
>  _“That’s right, you’re the bitch tonight.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somthing that has happened before  
>  _“Alright, kiss her, Mr. Russia. Welcome her to the family!”_  
>  _“Daniel, no,” Vlad frowned and tried to get the cat out of his face, but Danny was laughing now and decided he wanted the man to kiss the kitten in his drunkeness._  
>  _“Danny, yes,” he replied grinning and pressed the kitten snout to Vlad’s face. Danny lost it at the sight of the man’s utter umbrage face and the man was ready to punish the adolescent –_  
>  _But then Danny kissed him to._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey guys!  
> As you can see, the title has changed and hopefully you won't be so outraged by this fic anymore  
> This chapter is shorter than most, but I hope it still turned out alright  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, the Masters mansion on East Egg, New York, USA_

The first grey rays of the morning sun glided across the grand bedroom and cast light over the two sleeping figures. 

Danny scrunched his closed eyes and opened them unwillingly with a low groan. He removed the crocket glasses and ran a hand through his black hair and tired face, tried to focus and remember if this was a Monday or not. 

Funny enough he was fully dressed, coat and all. It took him a second or two to recall where he was and he blinked slowly, took in the situation one bit at a time. 

He had fucked Vlad. 

Danny buried his face in his hands and turned his head to watch the sleeping man. 

He had released Vlad from the cuffs at some point he didn’t remember last night and even though there was a faint hint of blue marks around the man’s wrists, all the proves of last nights’ escapades had healed and only left the smears of blood and ectoplasm behind. 

Danny sighed and took a moment to just pretend. 

Pretend that he hadn’t just lost control of his life and returned to the same narrow trench he had used years of hard work to crawl up from. Vlad shifted in his sleep and pulled Danny closer to his warm body. 

Danny closed his eyes. In the past, Vlad had seemed so much bigger than him and been able to engulf Danny with his body. Wrap around him like a second skin and drown him in his heated core. 

Now Vlad just held him close, arms and legs tangled with Danny’s, but not covering him. They were almost the same size now. 

Strange what time could change. 

Well, Vlad was still clingy in his sleep, that hadn’t changed. Danny phased out of his death grip and send the man one last look over his shoulder before taking of his shoes and walked silently on socks to the bathroom. 

Closed the door and listened to see if the man would wake. He didn’t. 

The raven-haired man clenched his teeth. The crunching sound mixed with his suppressed whimpers and he covered his mouth with a hand to stop any sound from leaving him. 

He tightened the grip as something much more solid than sobs threatened to spill and hurried to the toilet. 

As predicted, a massive hangover was catching up with him and when he had emptied the amount of yesterday’s free drinks into the bowl, the headache followed like second nature. Danny groaned from his pitiful state and coughed painfully. 

Continued for a while and waited for it to stop. The misery didn’t stop, but the bile did. There was no more to throw up. 

If his human form was that bad he didn’t even wanna know how his ghost-form was doing and reminded himself to take a long scalding bath when he returned home. Which reminded him…he no longer had an apartment and therefore no bathtub. 

He sent Vlad’s bathtub a side-glance, but decided against it. It might be the cowards’ way, be he couldn’t risk ending up having to face Vlad while washing of the cum, ectoplasm and whisky clinging to Phantom’s still naked form. 

Danny cringed by the feeling of his half-ghost’s discomforts and hurried to pick up the battle-suit his duplicate had left in the bathroom. Turned ghost and hurried to put the black material back on, before he collapsed in stomach-churning cramps and disgust. 

He turned back human, feeling a bit better but still sick to the bone and groaned as the loud sound of metal chattered to the tiles. He tried blinking his headache away and looked down to find the ghost cuffs. 

He must have thrown them into the pile of his ghost suit last night or something. Danny rolled them in his hand and sighed. What had he done? 

His eyes returned to the closed door. Torn between two sets of moral and believes. 

The part of him that had taken overhand last night, told him that Vlad had deserved every second of it all and even gotten off to easy. That part of him made him feel better, told him that he hadn’t done anything wrong, only pushed what had been unavoidably for far too long. 

But that part of him had no place now that he was no longer bold and made indifferent with the help of deathblossom sweetness. The weak and nauseated Danny felt sick, sick in the soul. 

What he had done… he could never take that back. 

He wasn’t even sure if he would put up a hand to stop it if Vlad finally had decided to end him. 

The tears fell easily and Danny moved to hang over the sink like he had done so many times in the past, when he no longer could recognize what he saw in the mirrors and asked himself what he still lived for. 

Danny slowly lifted his eyes, stared into the blue orbs of the dark-haired man in the mirror. He looked himself. There was no haunted teenager with dark rings under his eyes or bruises staring back at him, only his own red-eyed face. 

Fully grown with a man’s natural edges and softness of his best age. 

He still needed a shave and get his hair cut, but overall, he was recognizable. Apart from the blue eyes. A hardness that hadn’t been there yesterday had crept into them and left something behind. Something colder, something alien. 

Something _unkind._

Danny broke the eye contact and filled the sink with ice-cold water to wash his face and maybe ease the nausea a bit. Vlad still hadn’t found him and Danny didn’t want to stay and find out how the man was feeling. 

If Vlad wanted his head on a plate, he could come find Danny. He had no doubt that he would. A portal formed on the floor and Danny was ready to jump into the zone and the next portal leading to the office, when a huff of blue mist left his lips. 

The fear that Plasmius had woken up to come out and play, was replaced with confusion when Danny didn’t recognize the ecto-signature. He knew Vlad’s by heart and when he phased back into the bedroom, he found that Vlad was still fast asleep. 

Danny sneaked pass him and continued out into the hallway. Listened and phased down the floor to get to the first floor. The sound of moving pots and pans increased and so did the waves of the unfamiliar signature. 

Danny stayed in his human form, but summoned energy to his hand. The other ghost had to be a weaker opponent, since he hadn’t felt Danny’s signature or reacted on it, but even a weaker ghost could be a danger if they felt threatened. 

Danny took a silent breath and phased through the door with lifted hand. 

And froze. 

An old Irish lullaby flowed from the little green haired maid by the stove. She had her back to him, continued to hum her little melody as she finished the pan of scrambled eggs and began on the bacon. Danny recognized the song. 

He had even had it sung to him in the past. 

The ecto-blast that had been seconds from firing, died out and his hand fell down to hang beside him. The maid suddenly turned her head and put up a surprised expression. Then she smiled. 

“Ah, oi wus waitin' for de lord ter call wi' de bell, but if a served table is required, 'ill be at yisser service in jist a second. Please take a sate in de dinin' hall.” 

Danny just stared, waited for the other shoe to drop. But despite everything the little ghost didn’t recognize him or show any signs of being alarmed by a stranger walking into her kitchen without explanation. 

“It’s jist down de hall, please,” she repeated and shooed him out of the kitchen. 

Danny decided this was already weird enough and just went with it. The window in the dining hall was still broken, but someone (maybe the maid?) had covered it up with boards, removed the broken glass and cleaned up the mud from the carpet. 

Making it a lot more endurable place to be for a person whose core didn’t seem to be able to take the cold. Danny took the seat next to the head chair without thinking and tried to sort out his troubled thoughts and feelings. 

The maid soon joined him with a serving card of different breakfast items and Danny had to swallow a lump when the taste was exactly as he remembered it. Her cooking was the same, she was the same. And still not. 

The headmaid of Vlad’s castle hadn’t been a young woman since Danny’s yearly childhood. And the Daisy Buckley he had grown up with hadn’t been a ghost either. 

But here she was. 

Danny jolted in his seat as the doors was opened suddenly and no other than Vlad Masters strode through. He was dressed to perfection in a modern navy double-breasted suit and the back hair gelled back like shiny ebony. 

Neither his smirk or demeanor revealed anything of last night’s escapates and if Danny didn’t know any better, he would say that Vlad seemed almost…happy. 

“Morning, love,” Vlad greeted and kissed Danny’s temple, leaving the younger man in shock before taking his seat and picked up the ironed newspaper Daisy had placed there for him. 

Danny began to shake, but not due to any drop of temperature and poked his breakfast without any appetite. Watched ghost Daisy pour coffee and chat with Vlad out of the corner of his eye. 

Vlad turned to the sport section and if he wasn’t already gleaming, Danny would say the man just received the key to the white house. 

“Looks like the Packers just won 17-9 against the Yellow Jackets. The eight season will surely make their price skyrocket, but it will be worth it in the end,” Vlad said and lowered the paper to look at Danny. 

Danny almost dropped his fork, but composed himself and just shrugged. 

“S-sure…” 

Danny watched Daisy’s back as she curtsied to Vlad and then left to carry on with her household chores. The doors closed and left him alone with the man. 

“You look as if you have never seen a ghost maid before,” Vlad chuckled and took a sip of his coffee without as much as waiting for it to cool down like a normal person. 

“What have you done?” Danny asked quietly and turned to the man with hurt in his eyes, “how did you turn her into a ghost?” 

“Me?” Vlad asked surprised and smiled like Danny was joking, “my boy, both you and I know the spawning of ghosts is out of our hands and completely up to the human soul itself. Mrs. Daisy came to me a year after her death. She just showed up on my doorstep and offered me her service. My guess is that her ghost obsession is to serve the Masters name.” 

Vlad scoffed at Danny’s troubled face, “don’t be so glom, Daniel. She doesn’t recognize me either, just my surname it seems. Really, you should be glad that she doesn’t remember her human life, else it would be impossible to say what she would do to the person who made a castle crush her to powder.” 

Danny felt like throwing up again and pushed his plate away. Meeting Daisy after all this time and like this was even worse than meeting Vlad again. At least Daisy he had come to peace with after blaming himself for her death for so many years. 

The only consolation from her death – selfish or not – had been the fact that, despite being friendly and kind to him for all those years, Mrs. Daisy and the rest of the servants had known about Vlad’s abused of him and done nothing. 

As if they hadn’t known. How could they not? It wasn’t like the bloody sheets or his screaming had been that discreetly handled. Danny knew they had feared awaking their Lord’s anger and needed their pay, but still. 

She of all should have helped him. 

“This is so fucked up,” he whispered and Vlad sent him a glance. 

“Daniel, we’ve talked about that tongue of yours,” he lectured lightly, but then smiled, “but I’ll allow it in the bedroom, I must say I have missed that sweet voice of yours.” 

Danny could only stare at him, “don’t tell me you _liked_ that!?” 

Vlad chuckled by his shocked expression, “oh, Daniel. You really think a little rough sex would scare me away? Moreover, last night seemed to be healthy for you. But next time you decide to be on top, please just say so. There’s really no need to restrain me like that.” 

Danny just gawked. 

“Vlad…I _raped_ you.” 

“Well you were a little aggressive, I agree, but we’re both grown men, Daniel. And really…” Vlad sent him a humored glace, almost like he was letting Danny in on a joke, “you needed it. Need to release all that silly anger and bottled emotions at least once. That’s the thing about you, Daniel. You bury your true nature and care to much of what others thinks about you. Can’t let go and just do what you feel like – instead you cling to that heroic image everyone wants you to be. You must be sick of all that pretending, having to be good all the time and fight to act innocent no matter what.” 

“That’s not true,” Danny replied, but Vlad had already gotten under his skin. 

“I think we both know it is. And really, I suspect that’s the reason you left Miss. Manson in the end. She wanted you to be this overworthly hero and worshipped you as such with all her ideals and predictions of you. Smothered you with an image you couldn’t fit and never should be restrained to fit either. One misstep and suddenly you would have betrayed her. Wouldn’t be special enough for her.” 

“We decided to part together,” Danny defended, but even he could hear how weak it sounded. 

“An adult solution people use when they don’t want to face the truth,” Vlad concluded offhanded, “she would never had been able to understand you anyway. She’s not like us or ever will she be. She would have died before you, withered before your eyes and blamed you for it. Have you even told them you’re immortal?” 

He hadn’t. 

“From your face to decide, I say you haven’t. But trust me, the day you do, she will hate you for it. Maybe even Mr. Foley will.” 

Danny rose and made the chair fall behind him, “they’re my friends, Vlad, they’ll understand – they always have! Don’t try alienating them from me just because I don’t love you! I can’t believe you turned last night into something that fit your believes of a relationship that doesn’t exist! I was drunk, okay!? I had no idea what I was doing!” 

Vlad sighed and took in Danny’s aggressive stand with a raised eyebrow. 

“Daniel, please. Must we always fight?” 

“Oh no,” Danny jeered, “did I break your hopes of a second round on the dining table or something?” 

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Vlad continued tiredly and rubbed his eye, “every time we get to the core of a problem, you put up that wall of sarcasm between us. I guess you probably do that because you're scared of admitting that despite everything, you always had feelings for me.” 

Danny scoffed to cover up the truth, but the man caught the minuscule sign anyway. He observed Danny with an expression mixed between mocking and surprise, “oh my, you have already realized this, haven’t you?” 

“Shut up!” Danny yelled, but there was no end to the man’s amusement now. 

“My, my, the old saying is still truth – ‘Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth’,” Vlad chuckled and rose as well to be closer to the center of his amusements, “tell me, little badger, when you kissed me that Christmas morning seven years ago, did you already have a crush on me then? Was the deathblossom really the last straw for you to admit it?” 

“SHUT UP!” Danny repeated and tried to run, but Vlad was faster and pulled him back to his chest. 

“Deathblossom really appears to be the key to the things you won’t admit. Last night you were drunk as well. Came to mourn me, regretted what you had done. Did you feel at home in the midst of all this, Daniel? The bedroom, the order, the scents and familiarity? Missed the old days?” 

Danny shook his head, ashamed of himself and just how right Vlad was. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t how he wanted things to be or how he wanted to see himself. Vlad loosened his grip and held him tenderly. 

“I was angry at first, but you needed last night and in a way, so did I. There’s no shame in what we did last night, Daniel. As I said, we’re adults – that core touching –” 

“Core-play,” Danny corrected halfhearted, still not entirely sure if this was one sick joke or not. 

Waited for Vlad to finally drop the crazy act, call Aprils fool and drag him to a torture chamber by the hair to end his misery. 

“Hmm,” Vlad hummed like he had to turn the word over his tongue like molded wine, “I must say, I had no idea ghost cores could be responsive to touch like that. Who taught you?” 

Danny wasn’t late to catch the hint of jealousy and sneered as he pulled free, “she’s long gone and out of your reach, Cheesehead. I helped her cross over with her sultan boyfriend years ago.” 

That seemed to please the man, “excellent, I would surely have banished her to the Unworld for touching you, but it seems you have already done that for me.” 

Danny wasn’t up for a discussion about whenever his powers would lead to ghost hell or not and let it go for now, “oh shut up, we’re not in a relationship and I can fuck whoever I want – you don’t see me kill your exes now do you?” 

Vlad lifted an eyebrow. He was more than used to the eternal accusations of dishonesty, immorality and gross misuses of money – but cheating on Daniel? Never. 

“Daniel you’re the only one for me.” 

Danny sighed tiredly, already feed up with the man’s spontaneous romantics. 

This was usually the part where he would say something mean or degrading, but the only taunts that came to mind were either insulting the man's age or his paternal instincts, but Danny had the feeling those words would end up sending mix signals. 

Better to stay on the safe side on this one. 

“Just leave me alone,” Danny said and turned ghost. 

Vlad seemed annoyed, but didn’t stop him and just watched him phase through the ceiling. Vlad picked back up the newspaper and a little smirk crept onto his face. 

Did Daniel honestly believe him to give up the chase now that he knew Daniel was aware of his own feelings for him? 

He turned into Plasmius with a dark smirk and left the newspaper to phase through the ceiling as well. 

Daniel had just given it up for a challenge and he did so love to be the challenger.

   
 

 _Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

“Hey! Don’t look at me with those judging eyes!” 

Nichols’ eyes just narrowed an inch more and Danny scoffed, threw his hands up in surrender. 

“Fine! I raped him, okay!? I fucked up, I fucked Vlad and I still fucking regret it – what do you want me to say? I was shitfaced and traumatized, I’m not the bad guy in this!” 

“Is Vlad?” Nichols asked slowly and Danny made a grimace. 

“No…I don’t know. Maybe? Probably not. Maybe I am?” 

Danny messed up his hair with a frustrated hand and exhaled deeply before turning his irritation back to the cop. Could almost feel the radiation of disappointment coming from the officer. 

Nichols had crossed his arms and watched the immortal with a frown. 

He had caught from the first moment that something had been off about the kid, but the story so far had lead him to believe that he could have been wrong about Danny. 

But now it seemed like the path of a hero was getting to an end for this one. Danny’s story had begun to darken in a way that made Nichols worry for how it would end. 

“Do I even want to hear the rest of this?” he asked and didn’t even try to hide the anger in his voice, “is this the story of how you abandoned all morals and became the man you had sworn to defeat?” 

“Don’t go all dramatic on me,” Danny protested and crossed his own arms similar to the cop, “this isn’t some fairytale – my story has no happy ending, Nichols. It’s a shit ride from start to finish and If you can’t take it, then cut the crap and wave goodbye.” 

“You want to leave?” Nichols asked and rose to grab the door. Pulled it wide open and stared the immortal down. Danny returned his glare, but didn’t get up from the chair. 

“We made a deal,” Danny said emotionless, “you said that if I told you my story and it was good, you would let me go. If not, I would have to face the system like anyone else. I have a story, but it’s a little too late to lie and turn it into a fairytale. If you like it or not is for you to decide, I’m just the one telling it. I’m still keeping up my end of the deal – are you?” 

Nichols held the kid’s stare for what felt like hours, before relenting with a sigh and realized that Danny was right. There was no door or gun that could keep this creature from leaving anytime he wanted or pleased. 

Danny had held on to his promise of telling his life story. 

Now Nichols would have to keep his. 

Danny watched him as he sat back down and then folded his pale hands, a look of sorrow filling his blue eyes, “listen, I get it. I’m not proud of what I did or ever will I be. I know better than anyone what this looks like – I crossed something I shouldn’t and neither talk of alcohol or vengeances can justify what I did that night. I’m supposed to be better than that. Do the right thing and stay the hero and without it I’m just a lost half-ghost without a purpose. People forget that I alone is the only one in control of whenever these powers will be used for good or evil. Just like Vlad, I made a choice. But that doesn’t mean I’m perfect at it. In that way, I’m still human.” 

“That’s not –” Nichols began, but was interrupted. 

“What you meant, I know,” Danny sighed, but then send him a stern glance, “but that’s what all who believes in me actually do. You see a hero in me, not a human. I can’t fail in your eyes, can’t afford it.” 

Nichols opened his mouth again, but failed to form a justified argument. Danny ignored him and made it clear that the discussion was over. Returned to his story with a clear voice. 

“I took a trip to the office to get a bath and cool of a bit. Get my shit together and come up with a plan for how to get my apartment back. Normal stuff.” 

“And Kemberly?” Nichols asked, actually wanting to know how she fitted into the mess that was Danny’s feelings. 

“Kemberly didn’t call, but I didn’t exactly expect her to either. I never really fell in love with her, never got over the whole ‘we’ve just meet and everyone thinks we’re should be a pair’, thing. I think she liked me a lot, but actually loved me? Nah.” 

Nichols was a little disappointed, but let it slide, “I know I’m ruining the surprise for myself, but I have to know…does this story continue to roll like a rolling stone?” 

Danny chuckled, “sorry, no spoilers. But I can tell you that life is a mystery and all things have to come to an end. But for now, all I can say is that all my demons came out to play that week and more than one angel lost their faith in me.”


	26. The bless and curse of working for a greedy gangster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny once made himself a promise  
>  _Danny stopped as his voice couldn’t reach the high note and he rubbed his throat. He hadn’t touched the piano since the day his voice began to change and with time had left him with a lot deeper baritone. Singing had been one of the things Danny had come to believe never would be taken from him, but it had seemed that what Vlad couldn’t deprive him of, time would._  
>  _And Danny wasn’t going to waste any more time._
> 
> And now Vlad wants Sojourn's pages  
>  _"With that journal and the intellect to decipher it, I could finally find my way into the Elsewhereness and rule its gates. It is said that the journal can lead its finder to the other worlds. To the Elsewhereness and Unworld. Every ghost in existing want to go to the Elsewherenss, Daniel. They would do anything for the chance to get there.”_  
>  _Danny’s eyes widened, now understanding, “by ruling the gates of ghost heaven and hell you could reign the Ghost Zone and with the zone’s help, the world.”_
> 
> * * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey you wonderful people out there!  
> like the new titel? I do - and hopefully poeple wont see this and think it's a fic about pedofelia - unless 17 is underage in your country - it's not in mine, but you never know  
> The fic is almost complete and as you can see the fic will have 51 chapters - the last probably the longest In this chapter Danny and Ember sing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMiVA0Xhlb0  
> I'm aware the song is original made to be sung by a female singer only, but this version has a male singer and if you can't imagine Ember singing it with him as a duet, you can just take one of the other links on youtube and listen to the original female version - if your handy enough, you could probably play both versions at once and there you have it  
> Anyway - hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, Vice End, New York City, New York, USA_

_**“All my demons came out to play that week**_

_**and more than one angel lost their faith in me.”** _

   
 

Danny found both Tucker and Sam at _Vice End._

At daytime, the nightclub had turned into a normal casino like it was custom for places like that and his two best friends was deep into another food discussion when he found them at their table. 

“Tucker that’s disgusting,” Sam noted and pushed her plate onto a safe distance from his meat-juice spilling plate. 

Tucker just ignored her and continued to cut his stack of steaks and nothing but steaks. 

“Yeah, that’s a lot of meat, even for you, Tuck,” Danny joined in on the conversation as he took a seat next to Sam. 

“Don’t take her side just because you’re a gentleman,” Tucker warned and send a gesture to the waiter to show them Danny’s way, “anyway – where have you been, man? You’re always the first at office Monday morning and now you show up at 12? What’s with this?” 

Sam send his wrinkled attire a look and then spit her glass of juice in realization, “oh my god, that’s the same you wore last night – don’t tell me –?” 

Tucker suddenly caught her train of thoughts and gasped, “the walk of shame! That’s the walk of shame right there! Did you and Ember –?” 

“NO!” Danny cut in and placed his hat a little harder on the table than necessary, “she kicked me out of her apartment and really, she’s the last person I would sleep with. She’s so…” 

“Childish, I know,” Sam helped and smirked like she had won a discussion and based of Tucker’s sour look, she just had, “let me guess, she wanted you to come home with her and need an excuse? There was no ghost, now was there?” 

“No,” Danny admitted and send the stage a glance, “she started flirting with me and I guess I told her to lay off, since I didn’t want to get on Walker’s bad side. Her being his girl and everything.” 

Sam and Tucker winced and Danny didn’t even look up as his plate was served. Danny’s eyes stayed at the stage where the pianist and some other musicians was playing without a singer in sight. 

“But for some reason I think she told the truth about the fires. The neighbor building was nothing but ruins and an apartment had been burned to a crisp.” 

Sam hummed and picked up a grape, “I’m not much for it, but maybe we should go out there again – all of us.” 

Danny liked that and Tucker seemed to catch he was in need of a wingman around Kemberly. Said person suddenly showed up and slammed her little hands down on the table. Making them all startled and Danny choke on his coffee. 

“Hey, ghost killers,” she greeted seductive and showed of her slim figure in a satin dress hugging all the right places, “I see you really have come to stay. Care if I join you?” 

She took place before they could answer and Sam rolled her eyes. 

“Sure, why don’t you? So how is your ghost situation going for ya? Still invisible, non-existent and a workable excuse to drag manly company home?” 

Kember pursed her lips and replied by throwing a rolled newspaper unto the table. Danny unfolded it, while Tucker and Sam tried saving their scattered food and read the article she had lined in lipstick. 

_“A fire similar to those three of last month, has taken the life of Mr. and Mrs. Hills after a fire started in their home Monday morning and a second burning followed only hours after and took the life of a Miss. Donald in the neighbor building. The cause of the fire is still unknown…”_

Kemberly stared them down and Sam didn’t feel like coming with a snarky reply for a change. Danny put down the newspaper and stretched his lips into a thin line. Cursing himself for not staying with her that night. 

While he fooled around with Vlad, three people had been burned alive. 

“Dammit,” he said and Kemberly nodded severely. 

“I know, I almost miss that old geezer to Mr. Hill. His insults had just started to get good.” 

“Be serious,” Sam frowned and Kemberly send her a dry look. 

“I am, Miss. Critic. My life is in danger and I’m trying to stay positive over here. You want to be in my shoes? Be my guest,” Kember sneered and Tucker placed a friendly hand on her shoulder. 

“Don’t worry, we were just about to go back to your place to investigate. We’ll have this ghost in no time, promise.” 

“No need to go now,” she sighed and snapped at the waitress to get a drink, “the fires normally start at night and I doubt that the responsible will start another this resent.” 

“Then what do you suggest?” Sam asked and lit a cigarette. 

Kemberly gesture for her to lit one for her to, “hang out with me until the club closes and come wait for the ghost at my place. If this ghost is really after me, then you should be with me and not my apartment.” 

Sam scoffed, but handed her the cigarette anyway, “and what makes you think this ghost is after you?” 

“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked and crossed her legs to show of her attributes, “this ghost clearly has a thing for me. The fires didn’t start until I moved here and started singing in New York. All the people getting killed has either offended me or been overfriendly. Just ask Danny-boy here, he met Mr. Hill last night.” 

“He did call her a whore,” Danny admitted and scratched his neck as he recalled the rude old man they had met at the stairs. 

“See? That ghost is after me.” 

Sam didn’t seem convinced and pushed her plate away after Kemberly flicked her cigarette ash onto it. Not impressed with the theory or their new client. 

“Fine, let’s just say that you need protection, then what? You want us glued to your back or something until someone decided to insult you again?” 

“Actually, I think I have a better plan,” Kember admitted and grabbed Danny’s arm, “this ghost doesn’t like guys being around me, so I have Danny here act as my date. That way we can lure it out.” 

Danny blinked, “wait, what?” 

“Oh yeah?” Sam replied and grabbed Tucker’s arm in the same fashion, “then I and Tucker will pretend to on a double date with you, giving us an alibi to stay close if the ghost should attack.” 

“Then let’s go have some fun,” Kemberly challenged with a sneer and pulled Danny out of his chair. Sam copied her and the two females raced to the door with their “dates” in tow. 

   
 

It was past sunset when they returned to the nightclub. 

Danny had tried protecting people from ghost attack before, but couldn’t remember having so much fun at the same time. The “pretend date” had started out as bad as it had sounded. 

A somewhat weird competition of who could be the most looking like a pair had made Kember and Sam take over the show and both males had half through just decided to do as they said. 

Too scared to speak up. 

Although Danny suspected that Tucker was secretly happy to go on a date with Sam – pretend or not. 

They had started said date by everything than racing down Central park and when Danny and Tucker made them stop their madness by bringing them hot coco, in hopes that they could al just sit down for a second. 

The females had then decided to prove which one had the best date, by having Tucker and Danny show who could drink the hottest beverage fastest without chicken out. 

Danny lost easily as he was already suffering from the cold affecting his core and had his tongue scalded already at lukewarmth cocoa. 

Kemberly didn’t give up that easy and when they went to Coney Island, Danny won back the alfa male position, by winning all the strength contests and games by chance with the help of a duplicate. 

Tucker then surprised them all by being skilled at the tents with shooting games, but at the end of race, Kember was still the one with the most stuffed teddy bears. 

The girls had continued their crazy durability contest and dragged Danny and Tucker up into the island’s rollercoaster. 

It had ended up in a tie between the two men, as they had both taken ten rides without problem and even become the ones to drag their dates on to the next. Kemberly and Sam had been on the brink of throwing up already half through and ended the madness quickly. 

To tired and sick to keep up challenging each other. 

They returned the mainland to visit the Aquarium for dinner and both Tucker and Danny was relieved to see that the females had started to get tired of their own game. 

They suggested going to Broadway to watch a revue and both Sam and Kember seemed to like the idea of resting their feet in a warm theater hall for a while. 

The mood lifted as it turned out to be pure comedy and all four of them laughed along with the rest of the spectators, forgetting all about pretend dates or ghost threats. 

Danny had smiled as he’d seen Sam rest her head on Tucker’s shoulder halfway through the show. Kemberly had seen it to and they had shared a knowing smirk. 

The trip back to Vice End was a stark contrast compared to the one from the club and Danny laughed at a joke Kember was telling. 

“Okay – A policeman pulls a man over for speeding and asks him to get out of the car. After looking the man over, he says, ‘Sir, I couldn't help but notice your eyes are bloodshot. Have you been drinking?’ The man gets really indignant and says, ‘Officer, I couldn't help but notice your eyes are glazed. Have you been eating doughnuts?’” 

They laughed loudly and Danny reminded himself to use that one on Wes Weston when he saw him again, and Tucker got their attention with the next joke, “Okay, okay – why is a Ford like a bath-tub?” 

None of them had an answer and he crackled, “because everyone has one, but is ashamed to be seen in one.” 

“I drove to the city in one when I moved here,” Danny admitted, only making the others laught more, “no seriously, but I think the difference between a Ford and a bathtub, is that I like to see the burglar who can run with a bathtub.” 

“That’s what I call a desperate thief,” Kember grinned, “and probably a man – what woman would ride junk like that? Or drive at all.” 

“Some of us like to have our freedom,” Sam added with a superior smirk and Kemberly clinked her drink with her, not denying that freedom was something to explorer for womanhood. 

“Sam could teach you to drive,” Danny offered, hoping that this blooming truce between the two would last. 

They had too much in common for them to be fighting like this. Why they were even fighting was still an enigma to Danny. Was it because of Tucker? 

Danny observed the three of them for a second. Tucker was telling another joke, having both Sam and Kember laughing, but maybe Sam more than the jazz-singer. 

When they had first meet Kemberly, she had been presented as Tucker’s date, but the singer didn’t seem like the usually tie-me-down girl and today had clearly showed him that she didn’t consider Tucker her man at all. 

It was even clear now, as Kember didn’t show any signs of anger or envy, when Sam laid her hand on Tucker’s arm – showing a subtle, but certain sign that she wanted more than just friendship from the man. 

The sight sent a little sting through Danny’s heart, but on the other hand, he was relieved. 

The romance he had with Sam had been amazing, but nothing but a pipe-dream. Even if they had stayed together and found that they wanted to get married, Danny couldn’t do that to her. 

One, because he couldn’t bring himself to weight her down with all the skeletons in his closet – and two, because a marriage between them would eventually destroy them. 

He recalled the sight of Vlad’s shocking youthfulness and now knew that the life of an old man would never become an option for him. He would never be older than this. 

While he would stay young forever, Sam would change, become an old woman and so would Tucker. He imagined it and found it almost cruel to place himself next to them. 

Reminding them of their own mortality and his own profane existence as a half human. With time, they would maybe even stop considering him human at all. He knew Tucker would act as nothing and keep treating him the same, but Sam? 

She had a habit of speaking up her mind if something bothered her. 

Vlad was wrong about a lot of things, but even Danny had to face that he was right when he said they would come to hate him for his powers. There was no use having illusion that him staying like this wouldn’t be a bother over time. 

Time would tear them apart and he had no way of altering it. He would have to leave them before he ruined their friendship. Ruined them with his inhumanity. 

He could never live a human life with anyone. 

Kemberly turned to him and he masked his inner sorrows with a smile he hoped was happy. He had to be happy for them and not show the envy and guilt that was slowly etching his insides out. 

He still hadn’t told them of his immortality and he doubt he ever would be ready to. His pretend humanity seemed like the last straw that bound him to them, made him alike them. 

What would they do if they suddenly knew he would live on while they grew old and died? That he would be the one to bury them when the time came? The images send shivers down his spine and he pushed them away. 

Like he always did. 

All to knowing that there would come a day when he couldn’t push the inevitable anymore. 

“Hey, what's eating you all of a sudden?” Kember asked him and waved a hand in front of his face. Danny squirmed as he found that they all were looking at him and calmed their concern with a light grin. 

“Sorry, must be all that wandering – you two ladies really made us work today.” 

“Yeah, we’re not working horses, you know,” Tucker added and now it was the two females turn to squirm a bit. 

The change in the music at the stage turned out to be the bell that saved Kemberly and she waved at the musicians to show them she would be with them in a second. 

“Sorry to spoil the fun, but the show must go on,” she said theatrical and rose to go backstage, “you’re coming?” 

Danny blinked surprised, “who me?” 

“What? You want me to risk getting killed backstage? You’re still my bodyguard, remember.” 

“Right,” Danny retorted and followed her to the scene. 

Didn’t catch the change of expression from Sam’s side. Kember send her a glance of mocking pity and pulled Danny closer with an arm in his. 

Danny had never been behind a real stage before and jumped to the side as a group of scene-technicians and showgirls whisked pass them to get to their places. 

Like a train station, the backstage seemed to be a knot of people moving to or from places, all with each place to be and almost all of them in a hurry. 

The thick smell of cigarettes, alcohol and women’s perfume almost choked Danny and he ducked in the last second to avoid getting a ladder in the face. 

“Is it always this crazy around here?” he asked and followed her in zigzag to the next room, where half-dressed or more or less naked women was chatting loudly, while doing their makeup and outfits in front of various mirrors. 

Kemberly grabbed a bottle of one of the tables and gurgled its content for a second before spitting it into a sink on the way. 

“If you think this is something come back Saturday, hon,” she smirked and started undressing without missing a beat. 

Danny turned around to save the modesty she and the rest of the room seemed to have left at the front and waited for the sound of the new dress getting on. 

“And this is for you,” Kember said and turned Danny around. He was relieved to see she was clothed again, now in a silvery dress with matching feathers to go in her hair – but the matching shirt she was trying to get him to take made him second that. 

“What for?” he asked slowly, hoping this wasn’t going where he was thinking. Kemberly ignored his hostility and grabbed his buttons to get his own plain shirt of. 

“For the show, of course. If you’re going to protect me on the scene, you’ll have to at least look decent. I told Jerald to take a break so you could play the piano for me.” 

“No.” 

“Yes! Come on they’re waiting for us, you dip!” 

“No,” Danny repeated sternly, not letting her boss him around anymore, “I made a promise to myself never to play again and I’m not breaking it because you have a need to have things your way.” 

“Come on, Danny,” she pleaded with fluttering eyelashes, clearly having changed tactic and Danny couldn’t help but compare her to a child wanting sweets at the candy-store. 

“Then at least sing a song with me? We could make it a duet,” she offered, not knowing she was only adding fuel to his hostility. 

“Singing is part of that promise to. Anyway, my voice can’t reach a decent tone – just give it up and go out there yourself.” 

“Aw, but Tucker said you have a great voice!” 

Danny reminded himself to murder Tucker after this and grabbed her hand to prevent them from ripping of his now opened shirt. Kemberly didn’t let go of him that easy and before he could blink she had two of the nearest women helping her out. 

Danny protested, but lost the fight and found himself in a now shining shirt and on the way to the stage. 

“It’s just one song,” Kember promised with a cheeky grin, “you can go back to the table right after, just one song.” 

"I can't," he retorted and tried to get out of the situation without using violence, "I don't -" 

"Well if you don't, then I can't sing at the stage and if I'm not at the stage Walker will hear and when he hears about this, he'll -" 

“Okay, okay!” Danny gave in with a scowl and ripped his arm free to walk himself, already hating it all with only one foot on the scene. 

Kemberly took the applause with a smile that spilled just how much she enjoyed the attention and blew a couple of kisses to the dancefloor. 

“Tell me who you love!” 

Danny tried sneaking back out, but she caught him easily and pulled him into the light. 

“I like to open tonight with a duet between me and my friend Danny here,” she informed and Danny wanted nothing but to form a portal beneath his feet and just disappear. 

He caught sight of Sam and Tucker, both surprised by his sudden debut in showbiz, but unlike Sam’s angry scowl, Tucker flashed a wide grin and whooped at them. 

For a second, Danny’s eyes sought a face out in the crowed and he squinted in the sharp spotlight to see. 

Ember took advantage of his absence of mind to push him into the piano chair and Danny looked back out at the tables, but whatever had caught his eyes had disappeared or maybe never been there to begin with. 

Kember posed at the piano with a guitar and the club seemed to quiet down, all waiting for him. 

Danny sighed with a muttering, “let’s get this over with” and placed his fingers on the keys. The feeling of the cool instrument familiar and know in and out. 

Danny gave the page of notes a brief look and found that the part of the lyrics that was meant for a male part was going to begin the song. 

If Danny hadn’t been this pissed he would probably had felt nervous from all those eyes staring at him. He played the notes of the chorus to open the music and drew a deep breath before beginning in a low note.

   
 

_“After you get what you want, you don't want it_  
_If I gave you the moon, you'd grow tired of it soon.”_

   
 

No rotten tomatoes were thrown at him and as no one took it upon themselves to booing him out, Danny decided to put some more effort into it and tried hitting a more even tone.

   
 

_“You're like a baby_  
_You want what you want when you want it_  
_But after you are presented_  
_With what you want, you're discontented.”_

   
 

Kember send him a great smile and Danny had to admit it sounded okay. It wasn’t fluent or perfect as his voice had been before his voice changed, but there was something to the new deeper mature voice. 

It had an edge to it and Danny found to his own surprise that he liked it. 

He inhaled to begin the next part and allowed his hands to dancer across the piano keys, as Kemberly joined him with her higher tone and just as edged voice.

   
 

_“You're always wishing and wanting for something_  
_When you get what you want_  
_You don't want what you get!”_

_“And tho' I sit upon your knee_  
_You'll grow tired of me_  
_'Cause after you get what you want_  
_You don't want what you wanted at all.”_

_“Don't you say that I'm unkind_  
_Think it over and you'll find_  
_You've got a changeable nature_  
_You're always changing your mind_  
_There's a longing in your eye_  
_That is hard to satisfy_  
_You're unhappy most of the time_  
_Here's the reason why!”_

   
 

Danny couldn’t help but think of a certain halfa. 

Kember couldn’t possible know Vlad, but something about these lyrics hit Vlad’s selfish nature nail on. As if summoned, Danny caught himself lock eyes with two familiar midnight blue orbs and guessed his guts had been right. 

The man was here. Vlad watched him from one of the tables and their eyes connected like second nature. Vlad must have caught the hint of the song, as he shook his head lightly. Probably thinking Danny was being troublesome again with his silly anger issues. 

Danny kept the connection with a cold glare as he finished the song. Hoping to pour his message for the man with every word.

   
 

_“After you get what you want, you don't want it_  
_If I gave you the moon, you'd grow tired of it soon._  
_You're like a baby_  
_You want what you want when you want it_  
_But after you are presented_  
_With what you want, you're discontented!”_

__  
  
 

Danny left the stage as promised after the song, but not without a great applause and Kemberly kissing his cheek. 

Good thing it hadn’t been on the lips or Vlad would surely try and murder her. Danny looked around for the other halfa, but didn’t find him. Something could seem Danny’s message had gotten through. 

“Hopefully,” he mumbled and pulled of the silver shirt to change back. He left the backstage with the intention of returning to the table with his friends, but was stopped by the door by two of Walker’s goons. 

“Walker wants to see you,” the tallest of the two white suits said without waiting for his accept and started to walk at both side of him, like they expected him to run or something. 

Danny swallowed a lump as he followed along, having a bad feeling about this. 

Maybe it wasn’t Vlad he should be worrying about when it came to that kiss. 

Walker was waiting for him in his office at the first floor. Filling out papers while eating a plate of hummer served with something that looked like whiskey, all that with a wide window giving view to the ground floor where the party was continuing on, just more muffled behind the glass. 

Danny was firmly placed in the only other chair and the two suits moved back like they would give the man his space, but Danny couldn’t help but notice they were still close enough to draw an ecto-gun on him. 

Walker didn’t as much as acknowledge Danny’s presence and continued to eat while reading. Making Danny sweat in his own stew of possible things he could have done to piss of the man. 

The halfa waited the mandatory minute before freaking out and killing the silence with a slightly pitched voice. 

“Listen, it’s not what it looks like. Me and Kemberly is just friends and –” 

“Unless your sexual relation with Miss. McLain will become a hindrance between you and this job, then please keep the details to yourself, Mr. Fonten,” Walker replied calmly and signed the top paper 

before finally looking at him. 

Danny relaxed a bit, but didn’t believe he was off the hook just yet, “so it doesn’t bother you that she kissed me? I thought she was your sweetheart.” 

“She’s my employee, just as yourself. Now if there isn’t more rubbish at heart, then settle down and let’s run through the details for your first task,” Walker said calmly and pushed a package across the table. 

Danny look down at the flat paper package placed in front of him and lifted it curiously. It was light in his hand, but even though it held no earthly weight, Danny’s ghost-half suddenly began to stir. 

It wasn’t like when a ghost got near and activated his ghost-sense, but there was something about the package’s content that resonated with his core. 

Something ecto-natured. 

“The content of this package was brought to my attention a few weeks back, as more than a dozen agent reported a group of ghosts to be suspiciously active around the bank, in which this was locked away. Take a look at it and tell me what you see.” 

Danny opened it carefully, not knowing what to expect and felt how the power of the inside pulled at his core. Danny had never seen one in person, only heard spoken of them, but there was no doubt. 

Danny almost dropped the box and the piece of paper inside of it. 

It was one of Sojourn’s journal pages. 

Danny hesitated before picking it up and caught the scent of the Ghost Zone lingering from the page like a natural scent. The paper was green, almost feeling like crisp papyrus to the touch and filled with what looked like a foreigner language, if not alphabet. 

Not one Danny recognized at least, but hadn’t Ghost Writer said something about Sojourn writing in codes or something? Or was that only something to find hidden in the words to break the secret of how to get to the Elsewhereness? 

Walker began drumming his fingers on the tablecloth, getting impatient. 

“Well?” 

Danny looked from the man to the page. If he wasn’t mistaken, something would seem that Walker wasn’t aware of the page importance. Or story for that matter. 

He decided to play dumb, tell as little as possible and hope that Walker would spill just how much they knew himself by now. Under all circumstances, Danny couldn’t let this page slip his hands. 

He had to burn it before Vlad found it. 

“Well, it’s a page. From a book, I guess. That’s how pages usually work.” 

“I know it’s a book page,” Walker scowled, “now tell me what’s written on it.” 

Danny almost scoffed, ready to tell the man that he knew this language just as little as he, when Danny’s eyes returned to the page and he, to his surprise, suddenly discovered that he in fact could read it. 

“It’s…it’s about a sword,” Danny replied, reading with a mix of wonder and confusion, “but it’s weird, I’ve never learned this language before, but still I understand every word.” 

“We caught a ghost near the vault,” Walker replied, looking very pleased with himself, “she too could read the page, claiming it to be the tongue of the dead. I suspected you would be able to read it with your ghost-half and I see that I was right. Now, what does it say about this sword?” 

Danny read the strange words, turned the page and tried to get some sense of the writing. The page had been ripped from the journal, all right. A corner missing and some of the letters had faded or become stained by different specs of unknown stuff. 

A green spot looked suspiciously a lot like ectoplasm. But no matter how he turned it or interpreted it, there was no sign of hidden messages or code for the naked eye to see. It was just some notes about a sword. 

Seemed harmless enough. 

“Well, it says there’s some sword called the Soul Shredder,” Danny informed as he read, “it’s the sword of some ghost described as the ‘spirit of Halloween’. Ancient and dangerous weapon… something about it being magical to. Says here that if you get slayed by this sword, you’ll disappear into a dimension where you experience your greatest fears… wow, that’s –” 

“An abomination that need to be eliminated, yes,” Walker voiced sternly. 

Danny was going to say “nifty”, but whatever. That sword sounded like something right out of an Allen Edgar Poe book and reminded Danny of one of those ghost story novels he used to read as a child, when he would sneak into Vlad’s library at night. 

One of the goons moved up to the table to pack the page back into its package and smirked at his boss, “seems like that spook told us the truth after all. Maybe we should have given her the easy way out after all.” 

Danny wasn’t slow to understand and couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice, “wait, you killed the ghost? But if she was telling you the truth –” 

Walker scoffed, “what’s done is done. Now that her pack of ghosts is scattered and their ringmaster in jail, they will be easy to hunt down after this task. Charles, get the page back under lock and key.” 

“You’re putting it back in that vault?” Danny asked and watched as the package was sealed back up. 

Walker just waved his hand dismissively, “no, we have a copy taking the page’s place in the vault, no need for the owner to know we’re on to him. This one will be stored until we’ll know more. If that ghost really was truthful, there are apparently more pages to find out there. It will stay in our custody until them.” 

_Not on my watch._

Danny didn’t even think, but placed his right hand under the table. The goon was ready to lift the package of the table, when Danny’s invisible hand phased through the tablecloth and touched the paper. Making it intangible. 

While the package was lifted, the page followed Danny’s hand down through the table and landed soundless in his lap. Danny forced himself to breath normal to evade suspicion and watched the whit-clad agent walk away with the now empty package. 

Exhaled and felt a drop of cold sweat run down his spine. 

He had one of Sojourn’s pages. 

“ – the owner of the vault is a collector,” Walker continued and Danny nodded like had been listened the whole time. 

Hopefully he hadn’t missed anything important. 

“We have reasons to believe he owns said sword, as several of the papers in his vault showed registrations of other items he has previously sported on different private auctions. The address and security details are all in this report in front of you and when you’re at it, I want you and your partners to bring back any ghostly item you may encounter is his mansion.” 

Danny rose an eyebrow, “you want me to straight up caper this guy?” 

“I want you to take an order when given,” Walker emphasized coolly and lifted his glass of whiskey to his lips, “If anyone interferes I expect you to eliminate them. We can’t have witnesses.” 

“I’m no murderer,” Danny spluttered indigitated, “there’s no way I’m going to take some old man’s life. Robbing him is one thing but –” 

“That didn’t seem a problem with Mr. Masters.” 

Danny halted. Confused for a second, before remembering Walker had no idea that Vlad was still alive. And possible still in the building – hopefully he wouldn’t do something stupid like exposing himself to Walker. 

“That’s different,” Danny insisted and received a look from Walker that spoke volumes. 

“Is it now? Or is the different that you weren’t the one getting your hands dirty back then?” 

Danny didn’t have a good comeback for that and Walker gestured to the club through the window, “tell me, Fonten – do you like coming here? Getting free service and show?” 

“Well…yeah,” Danny admitted, but was interrupted again. 

“And you like coming here with Mr. Foley and Miss. Manson? Having a good time with them and enjoying the greater goods in life? Give your partners a good time and watch them protest at woman’s marches and smuggle cheap sherry in with boats in the night? See them out of jail?” 

“I –” 

“And what about dear Miss. McLain? You enjoy her show? Her company?” Walker asked and nodded to the scene down below. Danny turned his head and found Kember on the stage. Singing for life with a smile. 

“She has talent, the chance of becoming famous. A star on Broadway. Like she has always dreamt of – do you really want to be the person standing in her way? Putting her on the streets, because no joint or bar in town will want her after she’s blacklisted? Or worse?” 

“What are you saying?” Danny asked bewildered, “you’re going to ruin them if I don’t do _this?_ ” 

“You’re my employee now, Mr. Fonten,” Walker replied sternly, “all I ask is that you take orders like everyone else in here.” 

Danny couldn’t believe how ridicules déjà vu this was. They should never had taken this proposition – this guy was no better than Vlad! 

“You will grow into it over time,” Walker promised, like he was one to tell how Danny felt, “I was like you once. A punk who didn’t respect the rules or the ones enforcing them. You might as well spare yourself a lot of trouble by just following my lead. It’s important that you understand I’m the only thing keeping a pack of agents from taking you out. I am your boss, protector, executer, benefactor, and if necessary; your executioner!" 

“You said ‘executer’ twice,” Danny noted toneless and tried phasing the page on his lap into his pocket without having the crisp paper telling on him. 

"I like that part of the job,” Walker admitted casually and returned to his demanding tone, “destroy that sword and I you won’t have to experience that side of our contract." 

“Fine,” Danny scowled and left the seat with crisp paper in his pants. 

He had the page.


	27. Danny plays with fire and Vlad is introduced to an old flame of his

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> Walker has been watching Danny for some time  
>  _The specter desguised as a Mrs. Capster frowned, "seems like he had enough power to make a portal,” she concluded disappointed and sipped her expensive drink, “but overall, I think it is positive that you have been convinced of his powers?”_  
>  _A man dressed in a completely white attire and black fedora stepped out of the shadows and eyed the woman. He exhaled a huff of smoke with a narrow-eyed expression and nodded severely._  
>  _“You did not lie or disappoint, that is a clear atrocity of both human and ghost world, a halfa as you said,” he replied in an orotund voice heavy with a southern accent and send her a cold look, “as you have proven to be a trustworthy ally I will allow you to work in my organization; Guys in White. Welcome, Mrs. Spectra."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Danny gets his first job by the gangster  
>  _“The content of this package was brought to my attention a few weeks back, as more than a dozen agent reported a group of ghosts to be suspiciously active around the bank, in which this was locked away. Take a look at it and tell me what you see.”_  
>  _Danny opened it carefully, not knowing what to expect and felt how the power of the inside pulled at his core._  
>  _It was one of Sojourn’s journal pages._
> 
> And the past between Danny and Spectra lives on  
>  _The hand with the red fingernails reaching a point on Danny's thighs were he knew for sure that he couldn't take this anymore and he grabbed her hand before it could reach its goal, “don’t…please don’t touch me anymore…”_  
>  _The suffocating perfume showered him as she leaned forward with red lips and sweet breath, “hmm, you sure that’s what you want, Danny-boy?”_
> 
> * * *
> 
> Welcome back to "how fucking deep can we dig Danny Fenton's grave?"  
> It's time to ruin this beloved character once again and see how far we can push shit before it blows up  
> the mention of other beloved Danny Phantom character will be mentioned in this chapter and get to play their part in the fic - can you spot them all?  
> Hope you enjoy and comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, Vice End, New York City, New York, USA_

Walker watched Danny rise from the table, almost knocking over the chair and returned to the club’s lower area with angry strides. 

For a second he thought he had seen something greenish in his lap, but nothing had landed on the floor and before he could dwell more on the matter, his right henchman Bullet leaned to him. 

“The car is waiting outside, sir.” 

“Very well,” he grunted and left the table with the two agents flanking him, “assemble a team to take down that circus troop that ghost from the vault was squealed about. We might have their human ghost-whisper in a cell, but the source of his power is still the one thing we couldn’t wring out of them.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Use Wulf if you have to, that ghost needs to prove he’s worth keeping alive.” 

Bullet send him a grim look and adjusted his eyepatch. In his opinion that were-ghost still deserved to be put to death from what he did to Bullet’s eye. 

He didn’t even try to conceal his displeased tone, “I still can’t see the use of keeping all these ghosts like pets. First the crazy dog, then the redheaded leech and now this half-ghost punk? You’re putting together your own freak show all of a sudden?” 

Walker send him a warning glance, “are you questioning my authority, Bullet?” 

Bullet kept his mouth shut as they left the club and reached the car lined up at the cub. The driver opened the door for the leader of the Guys in White with a firm nod. 

Walker turned to get in and then rested his hand on the door for a second. 

“Being ambitious isn’t only a sin, Bullet, it’s against the rules. Don’t give me a reason to bury you in that suit.” 

Bullet seethed back at the front of the club as the car drove of and into the night. Three whit-clad men walked to stand by his side and watched the fading light of their leader’s vehicle. 

“I’ll take it that he didn’t drop operation ‘requiting spooks’?” Charles concluded and Bullet cracked his neck loudly. 

“I don’t care if it’s that leech he’s fancying, who’s having him under a spell or something, this has gone for too long.” 

“Agree,” another agent added and send Bullet a side-glance, “maybe it’s time for some change. How does new management sounds to you fellas?” 

The rest of the white-clad men murmured in accordance. There had been a stirring in the ranks for the past weeks and changes seemed inevitably. 

“Then let’s get to work and purge this organization back to bleach white,” Bullet smirked and went for the cars with his men. They had a were-ghost to take for a walk.

   
 

Spectra send the last glimpse of her boss’s second in command a jeering glance and turned her head to stare at Walker in the limo seat in front of her. 

“Looks like someone’s forgetting his place,” she mused and moved to sit next to the human. 

He ignored her and she placed her petit hand on his chest with an ingratiatingly smile. Giving him full view to her attributes while feeding of his lifeforce in secret. 

Men was so easy to distract from what was really happening right under their noses, when you flashed a little bit of skin. That’s why she would have to take care of this Bullet before he stuck his nose in her business. 

“How did Danny-boy take his orders?” 

Walker scoffed, “this punk better proves to be as useful as you claim him to be – for your sake.” 

“He will,” Spectra chimed and pressed her breast against his arm, “sweet Danny will do anything to keep his friends safe. And now that he holds a torch for that little songbird of yours, he’s as good as eating from your hand. Your own personal halfa to control. How does that feel? Good, right?” 

“Allow me to challenge that statement,” a third voice joined. 

Walker had pulled his ecto-gun before Spectra could even draw air to make a gasp and they both stared at the gentleman in the seat opposite them. 

Walker’s eyes narrowed to slits as he recognized the specter, “Dalv Masters. You’re supposed to be dead.” 

“Oh, I don’t doubt that, those men put up quite a show,” Vlad drawled with showing fangs and leaned back to make himself more comfortable in the expensive limo seat, “but since I’m still in one piece and your men aren’t, what does that tell you?” 

Spectra inhaled and an expression of hunger spread across her beautiful features, “that you’re a halfa.” 

Walker send her an icily glance and Vlad chuckled, “no need to take your frustration out on this pawn, Mr. Walker. I’m far beyond any ghost you’ll ever encounter and more than capable of hiding my presence to other ghosts. This one included.” 

Walker wasn’t impressed and didn’t lower the gun one second, “halfa or not, it makes no different to me. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just kill you now in the back of my car.” 

The corner of Vlad’s lip twitched into a confident smirk, his voice taking up an edge he normally saved for business talking, “I have a proposition for you. How would you like a halfa twice as advanced and capable as the current one in your ranks?” 

Walker’s poker-face was spot on, but Spectra could feel a change in him through the hand still resting on his chest. He was considering it. She sucked some of his juice to make him more open to the halfa’s offer. 

The weeks under her control had slowly, but surely made him more readable to her and as she had fed on his soul, small cracks had started to show in his armor. 

Walker had always been a man of righteous, of sternness and discipline. He kept his men sharp with clear rules, merciless leading and an admirable spirit. 

It was hard not to be blinded by such an authority and even harder resisting devoting yourself to something as noble a course, as saving humanity from the undead with a man like Walker leading you into battle. 

With his power, unbreakable army of men flanking him and intuition for how to run a city, Walker was the image of a perfect ruler. 

And Spectra should know. She was the one feeding of that perfection. 

Funny how a man could prove himself countless of times to his people and the lose it all by stumbling ones. She knew all too well that her presence by his side and her influence was creating problems in the Guy in white paradise. 

It had taken some time to make Walker trust her, but she had her ways and soon she had been cradled by him in the night, listening to all his insecurities and childhood traumas. 

Swallowed it all like sweet jello and snaked her way into his head with her silver tongue. Made him dependent on her, craving her assuring words and safe bosom to rest his tired head on. 

He had gotten oh so tired these days. Lost patience with his men over the slightest missteps and acted irrationally. Broken his own rules and created new ones with her word as guarantee. 

Making his men starting to share frowns. Spectra weren’t worried. This was a wild-ride she would enjoy as long as it lasted and by the time the house of cards would collapse, she would already have bailed to seek a new victim to feed on. 

It was her game and she had played it for quite some time. 

She lowered her heavy painted eyes and gave the jet haired halfa in front of her a look over. 

And speaking of new games and feeding object. 

When she had first meet Danny Fenton, she had counted herself a lucky gal. Halfas was creatures of prophecies and ghost lore – complete unicorn in the undead society and foretold to be the most powerful of all supernatural creatures. 

Wanders of both the living and the dead world. The bridge between man and spirit. The perfect meal for a lifeforce hungry ghost as herself. 

And _boy_ , had that kid been ripe for the taking. Even as an adult, Danny had proven to be full of boundless insecurities, self-doubt and heavy burdens spawned from having to exist on the border to life and death. 

To her, he was like a shower of life, a taste of endless energy – the fountain of youth she had scrambled through her afterlife to pick from endless of humans. And he was just barely a man now with mere twenty-seven years behind him. 

If her powers didn’t deceive her, she could tell that this older halfa already had reached his fifties. A mature age that promised a soul with years of scars. What traumas and crushing sorrows would await her in his firm chest? 

She was already drooling by the thought. She wasn’t the only one. 

Walker’s thinning confidence had been compensated by greed and greed demanded better toys. A better halfa to play and control. 

“I take it that you know Mr. Fonten well enough to make such accusations?” Walker replied slowly and lowered the gun to his lap. 

But didn’t unload it. Making clear that he didn’t trust the halfa one second. 

Vlad knew this and even more so, he knew how to sell a deal that could make even the most skeptical of buyers like pudding in his hands. 

“That would be correct. Daniel is a halfa with potential, potential I have molded into something useful by hard training since childhood, but alas, there are qualities that just can’t be taught. Daniel is strong, but he will never be a soldier, I’m afraid.” 

Walker narrowed his eyes, “he will if he’s motivated enough.” 

Vlad scoffed, “he can’t hurt a fly without falling into a pit of self-pity. You will have more luck killing him, than teaching him to follow orders. He just doesn’t have it in him to pull the trigger.” 

Walker grunted, “and you do? Not afraid to get your hands dirty, Mr. Masters?” 

“I usually wear gloves, but I think you see the picture,” Vlad chuckled and ignored Spectra’s hungry look. 

He was used to women, even ghost women, to suck up to him. He was the whole package after all and if his appearance didn’t do it, his charm normally would. 

“Mr. Fonten has proven difficult,” Walker retorted, deep in thought, “but I must say it’s seems unlikely that a person as yourself would come to me after I send my men to eliminate you.” 

Vlad just waved him of, “water under the bridge, Mr. Walker. We’re both successful men in each sector of this city and is would be ridicules to allow a young man’s silly grudges against my person to come between a golden opportunity as this.” 

“True,” Walker admitted, but then smirked, “but I must say, Mr. Fonten must really despise you to allow himself to break his own morals and allow my men to take your life.” 

They both chuckled and Walker let go of the gun to lean back in the seat. Vlad added a few more layers to his plan and put up his own confident smile to mask his intentions. 

“Let’s return to my proposition, hmm? I offer my service as a half-ghost in return for a partnership and future businesses in both our part of the city. I know you and your brother have some severe differences and you have been looking for someone to take his place as the mayor or city. A person you could trust.” 

“Tempting,” Walker purred and put up a grin that was all but malicious, “but there’s just one problem. I can’t have two halfas in my organization if one is set on killing the other. Such display would be against the rules.” 

“Halfas is a rare race, Mr. Walker. Like authentic ming vases,” Vlad entrusted and leaned forward with entwined fingers, “and as all good businessmen, I believe it’s only logic to smash the cheapest one to raise the others value to make it priceless. As I said, I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.” 

“Then we have a deal,” Walker concluded and offered Vlad his hand, “I never really liked the boy’s policy about helping ghosts anyway.” 

Vlad shook his hand without guilt, just as easily as Germany had invaded the neutral Belgium to leave it maimed behind them. 

“Daniel’s way of thinking sure is orthodox – but if helping ghosts is such a foreigner idea to you, then I’ll have to ask, what you’re doing with this ghostly individual beside then?” 

Spectra put up a charming smile and even more charming voice, “oh, don’t worry about little ol’ me, Mr. Masters. I have already proven myself to be quite useful to the Guys in White. Really, we should be friends you and I. We both have dear Danny in comment after all.” 

Vlad didn’t like the sound of that. Daniel had never mentioned her and based on her purring pronouncing of the young man’s nickname, she meant as in more than just a briefly meeting. 

He had kept track of all possible partners in Daniel’s life after him and never stumbled across this ghost before. Just what was her connection to his soulmate? 

Which reminded him – a certain singer would have to die when he got time on his hand. 

They continued to discuss the partnership in the car and Spectra made to leave – but not before winking at him. Vlad formed a duplicate in secret and left it to keep Walker in check, while he phased out of the limo to follow her like an invisible shadow. 

She stopped in an empty ally and turned to wait for him, glad that he had caught her wordless invitation. He huffed by her shameless display and came back into view. 

Spectra didn’t mask her admiration of Plasmius’ form and stride up to him with long legs and a coy smile. 

“Got tired of Walki-talki already? He sure gets annoying over time with all his rules, don’t you agree?” she asked and placed a convenient hand on his broad bicep. Vlad wasn’t late to pick up a sign of flirting when he saw one – or felt in this case. 

Vlad himself had owned his share around women and saw right through her. Flirting would do her no good, if he didn’t get some questions answered tonight. 

“Don’t be coy with me, I have better things to do than follow you into a dirty ditch. Now speak,” he simply cut off and crossed his arms dismissively. 

Spectra didn’t let herself get toppled that easily and turned up the charm. 

“Uhh, cold and brisk, what a man. Exactly the kind of man I could make a deal with.” 

“A deal?” Vlad asked and lifted an eyebrow. Spectra flashed a smile as flashy as her jewelries. 

“Yes, between you and me I think little Danny-boy would much more valuable alive, than death – well half-dead that is. I like you to spare him,” she explained, “for _me._ ” 

Vlad hid his anger under a perfect mask and tried to figure this strange ghost out. Meanwhile she had crept closer and began to dust of the collar of his cape. 

“It’s really no big deal,” she drawled theatrical, “Walker is losing it, even his own men have begun to lose their trust in him. His time as ghost hunter and New York ruler is at stake. If you handed Danny over to me, I could insure that Walker’s fall would come a lot sooner.” 

“I see,” Vlad replied lightly and watched her hands in secret – there was no way for her telling where he was looking with his iris-less red eyes, “in exchange for the halfa, Walker and his reign will come to an end. That would surely make my business both as human and ghost a lot easier to come by.” 

“You could even make this territory your own,” Spectra added encouragingly, “Danny wouldn’t need it in my care anyway.” 

Vlad was beginning to get an idea of what this creature’s deal with Daniel was, but the last piece in the puzzle presented itself, when her hands found their way to his chest and the sudden feeling of dread wrapped around his heart. 

“And how is it that you and Daniel is related again?” he asked to cover his own unease. 

Wrung his head to recall if he had ever encountered something about a ghost manipulating feelings or a person’s heart before in his ghost research. 

“Oh, Danny-boy? He and I go way back,” she assured and failed to see the jealousy bloom in those red eyes. Too caught up with the sudden rush of energy she felt bottled up inside this old halfa. 

If Danny had been a treat, this halfa was a ticket to the land of youth! So much misery, so much hate and sorrow. She could taste it on her tongue and almost lost control in her digging. 

It was only logical, she guessed – the younger halfa had been a caught-up misery case, all messed up by teenage troubles and a young heart afraid of his own feelings, if not powers. 

But where Danny had been like drinking from a waterfall, wild and spilling everywhere, this halfa had a certain containment of his feelings. 

Like an old vintage wine stored away to mold for years, she could sense its complication, its pressure of ages, of hidden misery and ignored suffering. This man was a goldmine of despair! 

Now she just had to break the seal of that bottle and she could dip into a million-dollar spa experience. 

Vlad felt the foreigner power trying to take hold of him and kept up the resistance, “is that so?” 

“Oh, yes,” she continued, but now more off minded and apparently not concentration on him anymore, but his core. 

Forgetting herself and allowing her mouth to run wild in her fight for his misery. 

“We met back when he was all spring youth and apple cheeks,” she continued and giggled unrestrained, “well, he still has that innocent look, despite the fake glasses and grownup tie. He used to be 

so hopeless at the piano back when I was his teacher, but would you believe how nicely he played tonight? Seems like he learned a thing or two from me after all.” 

She lowered her eyelids, as if sharing a secret, “among other things…such a shy boy, no taste for power or control. I tried making him a man and he repaid me by freezing my glamor form. He must have believed he’d killed me or something. I bet it kept him up at night, so innocent – not like _you._ ” 

_Of course_ , Vlad thought and gritted his teeth. A teacher – a private piano teacher nonetheless. He believed he had even been the one to pay the school to hire an extra musician for the sake of giving Daniel private lessons back when he was fourteen. 

Fourteen…Vlad felt the anger grow in him and ignored her batting eyelashes and roaming hands, as she leaned into him and engulfed them in that blood smelling perfume of hers. 

Fourteen had been the start of Daniel’s first rebellion. Vlad could still remember the hostile letters they had received and how the boy had spent the summer holiday with his friends rather than family. 

Daniel had turned so utterly cold at that age. 

Pushed his sister and mother of him like he couldn’t take their touches or worrying words. Locked himself away from everyone and finally allowed his anger to rain over Vlad, rather than bottling it up with a “yes, sir” as usual. 

The boy had taking up his faith in the church almost passionately around the same time. Spend all his time in the chapel… 

Vlad lost his breath as he remembered the first time he and Daniel had kissed. Daniel had been so natural at first, responded to him in a way that had assured Vlad that this was something he had wanted to. 

After their resent talk, he now knew that Daniel had had a crush on him back then nonetheless. But then something had changed in the boy that Christmas morning, a fear had jumped into those icy blue eyes of his and left him cold in Vlad’s arms. 

All this time, Vlad had been convinced that the fault had lied in the harsh catholic upbringing Danny had suffered under his mother. The fear of intimacy and him as a male. 

He had always believed himself to be Daniel’s first experience with sexuality. 

But someone had beaten him to the punch is seemed. And left Daniel damaged. 

Spectra grinned as she finally felt the barrier break. The amount of misery almost knocked her down like hard liquor, but where she would usually have found refreshment and delight…something went wrong. 

“What the!?” she gasped and tried to pull back, but Vlad grabbed her before she could get away and flashed that fanged smile of his. 

“I see, a leach-core. Feeding of other’s lifeforce and darkest feelings,” he concluded in malicious glee. Spectra struggled to get free in fright. Realizing she had committed the mistake of her afterlife. 

The misery she had sought had been no near the kind she would normally feed of. 

She had always preferred humans, as living creatures they had always contained most misery of all creatures. Feeding of a halfa, a halfdead, had been something new to her. 

Danny’s misery had been strong and overwhelming, containing the taste of death – but human nonetheless. 

This man wasn’t. He had self-harming emotions and traumas yes – but he had ruined them all. 

All his misery, sorrows and hate had been turned into something as disturbing as self-righteousness. All his fears had been drenched in hunger, all insecurities washed away by bottomless confidence and all hurt evolved into burning hatred. 

All of it fueling him to distort even the smallest speck of misery. All memories of failure or sorrow had been turned into beliefs of it to be the fault of others. 

Shame had been replaced with smugness and every second of his waken mind had become colored by the believe of him being untouchable. 

That even the most heartbroken failures could serve as another step to victory – that even if he lost a fight, he would always win the war. 

The man simply didn’t believe in feeling misery and if he did, it was laced in the believe that it could be fixed by the possession of things. Especial the possession of a certain halfa. 

Spectra screamed as the volts of high electricity ran from Plasmius’ hands to course through her body, making the air reek of burning ectoplasm and hair. 

Vlad took in her painful cries and finally decided how he wanted her to pay for her damaging of Daniel. 

He threw the specter of him and she collapsed on the concrete, panting and shaking in pain. Layers of youth curled back from her form and left her in her true shadow form, a weak state without any nourishment. 

Vapor drifting from her inky body and she lifted weakly her head with a look of pure dead, as he moved to stand above her. 

“Allow me to propose a different deal,” Plasmius stated grinning and turned her unto her back with his boot, and place it on her chest, ignored her weak squirming, “you will go freshen yourself up, go to Walker and weaken him to the point where he can’t even order a mouse around. You will take orders from me and spy on his men until Daniel return from his task. You will never again try feed of him or so much as look in his direction. Should any part of our deal be broken from your side, you can be assured that I will personally make sure that you crease you to exist. Understood?” 

She nodded eagerly, still gasping like a fish on land. 

Vlad’s grin got an extra inch, “Excellent.”

   
 

Cold water splashed onto the mirror and Danny dried his face roughly and stared at himself. 

He lifted his now dry hands from the tight grip around the sink and found that they had stopped shaking. 

At least he had that going for him. 

He rechecked for the third time that he was alone at the club’s male toilet and opened a couple of stalls just to be sure. First when he felt safe did he dare to phase the page out of his slacks. 

It had become a bit crumbled by his walk to the bathroom, but Danny doubted that it was that easy to break. The green page shone ominous and serene at the same time. Both easing and frightening him. 

It could easily be compared to the feeling of having too much cash on your person and seeing thieves in everyone around you. That it would be stupid to believe one could keep it to one self and not getting mocked just the same. 

Danny had held a couple of ghostly artifacts before in the past. Vlad had always been more interested in their ghostly world than him and over the years, the man had collected different items with more value to ghosts than others. 

Danny had mostly tried to stay away from Vlad’s collection – both due to the curses most of the items possessed and the fact that most of it would come to live in the hands of a ghostly presence and do freaky stuff. 

Something told him that this page responded to his ghost-half and as he transformed he found that its glow and pull of his core increased to the double power. 

“I have to hide it somewhere,” he whispered gravely and looked around. He should probably destroy it, but to be frank, he had no idea how. Could a ghost page burn? Be torn apart? 

Danny had absolutely no idea and really and he had bigger problems right now. 

Walker expected him to bring back a sword and Danny still had to find a way to end this liaison with the gangster and get his friends out of his reach before something nasty went down. 

He found that his hands had begun to shake again and hurried to stuff the page down into his pocket before he lost his cool completely and left the toilet to find the others. 

His searched stopped rather abruptly as the sound of commotion behind a draping caught his attention. 

“ – listen, baby, try and level with me. I’m a star, I don’t do marriage and happy homes. It’s not like you would be able to handle me anyway.” 

“But, Kemberly –” 

“If you don’t let go I’ll have to call the bouncers.” 

Danny took that as his cue to assist and moved the heavy drape. Kemberly lighted up by the sight of him and the man behind her pulled back immediately. 

“Is there a problem?” Danny asked and tried to weight the guy with his eyes. 

Clearly human and pretty skinny to, he couldn’t even look Danny in the eyes as he hid them behind a sixpence and unwashed hair. The man didn’t reply, but hurried to leave and slammed the backdoor behind him. 

Danny guessed that was it and turned to her, “you okay? Did he hurt you or something?” 

“No,” she sighed and rubbed her arm, more cold than sore, “just ignore him. He’s just an admire and I’ve seen him before backstage – I think we even talked ones. He works with the light and other stuff around in the area, I think. He’s harmless, just…” 

She shook her head, not knowing what to say. 

Danny choose not to press her and she changed her frown with a coy smile and linked their arms in good manner, “and speaking of admires, you have become pretty popular, I can tell. A couple of ladies has asked for you.” 

“Please don’t,” Danny sighed and made a grimace as she led him to her table backstage, “how about we just forget it ever happened and never do it again?” 

“Aww, but we had so much fun!” she insisted and started to put on some more makeup before the mirror, “I think we made a pretty good pair out there. You had to admit it was fun.” 

“Maybe,” he mumbled. It had been… _fun_ , in a sense. 

He had to admit he had missed the feeling of the cool piano keys and soothing sound of the music. It wasn’t like the church choir or playing for a room full of wealthy guests, demanded to see if he was skilled in some form of art. 

It had felt like fun. Like having a small party just for them. 

Kember watched him with a knowing look and he stuck his hands in his pocket to camouflage his running thoughts. He was startled when he felt the page pull at him from the mere touch of his fingers and looked down at the green ball of crumpled paper in his hand. 

It had begun to glow again and Danny’s problems of what to do with it made its return. 

He knew he couldn’t bring it along on his trip to this wealthy collector’s home, but hiding it would prove difficult to. 

The safest would be to hide it in the club, as his office and Tucker and Sam’s apartments would be too obvious for any potential thieves to go to. If walker found out about his little stunt, the club would be the last place for him to look for it. 

But then he would have to get either Sam or Tucker to stay behind to guard it while he was out. 

He closed that scenario just as fast as he had formed the idea. He already knew that none of them would want to stay behind and if he asked them of this, he would be forced to explain to them why the page was so important. 

Danny knew he probably should have told them about Sojourn and his pages a long time ago, but the whole case of The Unworld and Elsewhereness felt like a ghost thing. 

Something humans wouldn’t be able to understand – and he had already tried to explain his fear about his crossover powers to Sam and gotten turned down. He didn’t feel like taking it up again tonight. 

As said, they had bigger fish to fry and a very big one to get of their plate before it hurt any of them. 

His eyes suddenly fell on Kember and an idea formed in his head like second nature. 

Kemberly would be in the club all night…Ember was a human and therefore not influenced by the page or making it beacon to all ghostly interties in the neighborhood like a crazy flashlight for ghost core to feel. 

Kember wasn’t going with them and the only one of them that wasn’t in danger of getting killed. 

This could work. 

“Uhm, Kember, could you do me a favor?”

   
 

He returned to the rest of the club with a lighter heart and determined spirit, hoping that Kemberly knew how to hide things well and didn’t take stupid risks. 

When he returned to their table Walker’s papers was waiting for him in a neat pile and Tucker waving him over. 

But no Sam. 

“Congrats, man!” Tucker greeted and pushed a drink into his hand, “that was amazing, Danny. You still have a voice to die for – you two looked great together.” 

The last part was loaded with something Danny could almost believe was insinuation, but that had to be him reading more into it. Everyone knew he and Kember was just friends…right? 

“Sure,” Danny replied, not sure at all and changed the subject by pointing to the papers on the table. 

“You've read them?” Danny asked and grabbed a chair. Tucker nodded and pushed them to him. 

“Looks like this guy we’re about to pay a visit is a ghost fan. A lot of ghost stuff beneath his nails – says here we’re to find a sword?” 

Danny gave the club a glance to make sure no one was listening in and leaned in to the other with a low voice, “Walker wants us to steal it and kill the owner if he interferes – well. More demanded it, actually.” 

Tucker’s face turned a bit pale and Danny nodded gravely, “I know. He’s gonna ruin Kemberly and kill one of us if we don’t follow orders. Sam was right, this is crazy.” 

“Jesus,” Tucker replied and took a large sip of his drink, “you had to admit it was promising while it lasted, though.” 

“I know,” Danny sighed, “we should never have signed those papers at the beginning. This is all my fault for getting caught by Walker in the first place.” 

“No,” Tucker protested, “I was the one getting all excited by the show and free drinks. If anyone is to blame it would be me. Sam is gonna get so pissed when she hears this.” 

Danny sent the club a last look around, “we should probably tell her and come up with a plan to get out of this mess. Where is she by the way?” 

Tucker pointed to the entrance, “out smoking, she said she needed some air or something.” 

Neither of them commented on the fact that going outside to smoke was a little strange, but Danny seemed more concerned than Tucker and volunteered to go out to get her. 

He found her outside on the street, where she had lit a cigarette in the early darkness and leaned against the wall of the club, a little away from the front to be alone. Danny lifted a hand to greet her and she looked up, but didn’t respond. 

Danny crocked an eyebrow and walked up to her. 

“Hey, Sam…what are you doing smoking out here?” 

She responded with a scuff and blew a huff of smoke, “guess it’s appropriate to congratulate you two. You’ll make a nice item.” 

Danny got a little stunned by her biting sarcasm, “what?” 

“You heard me,” she replied icily and threw her cigarette on the ground, “she must really be something to make you play again. Something _special_.” 

Danny couldn’t believe this, “what’s your problem, Sam? Why are you acting like this?” 

“Why am _I_ acting like this?” she asked in cold surprise and pressed a finger to his chest accusingly, “what the hell is wrong with _you_!? We were together for three years and not once could I get you near so much as a triangle – you’ve known her for less than a week and suddenly you two are playing a duet?” 

She crushed the cigarette with her heel and tried to go past him, but he wouldn’t let her leave that easily. 

“Sam, listen –” 

“NO, you listen!” she sneered and pushed him off her, “when you returned from who knows where and popped out of nothing, I was there for you. You were suicidal, depressed and broken into pieces. I took it upon myself to picked them up and make you stable again. I was patient with you, I waited months for you to become whole again and gave you all my love – and still that wasn’t enough for you, was it!?” 

Danny felt the anger rise in him, “it’s not like you didn’t know what you went into. We both knew it wouldn’t be easy. That I had problems.” 

“But you never told me the whole story about Vlad. Kept you guards up and froze me out –” 

“What did you expect!?” he exploded and received a couple of glances from the passing on the opposite sidewalk, reminding himself to keep it down, “that I would go around and suddenly feel like spilling something like that? _Oh, hey, Sam, by the way, I was sexual abused by an older man_ – In what conversation could that ever occur?” 

“We were supposed to be able to be honest with each other, I only let it slide because I thought you needed some extra time,” she spat, “but all you ever did was build up a wall between us. I only ended us to give you some air and space to find yourself, maybe even someone to help you see that we needed each other. But now I see that your skeletons in the closet wasn’t the problem at all. I was. You proved that nicely by having that little slu–” 

“Don’t finish that,” Danny warned and killed the last space between them, unknowingly copying Vlad and his ways of topping an argument by walking in on other’s private space, “you were the one to suggest Kemberly to me in the first place. How fucked up is that, Sam?” 

“Not as fucked up as breaking your own promise of never playing again and then jump on stage to empresses some girl you’ve just meet!” 

“It wasn’t like that,” Danny replied defensive, “she didn’t exactly give me a choice and we’re just friends, Sam. _Friends_.” 

“Then tell that to Kemberly!” she yelled and stormed back inside. 

Danny had to take a second to cool down and for the first time in a century, he found that he actually missed the Box-ghost. When Danny had been younger, the ghost had been a nuisance and perfect object to let out his anger and frustration on. 

His own private punchbag, if you wanted. Now the ghost was gone and Danny was forced to cope with his own shit without anyone to take it out on. It almost scared him how close he had been to actually even consider hitting Sam. 

He pushed the fear aside, knowing he couldn’t dodge these things forever, but he had more important matters at hand and needed to save her and Tucker, before he could start arguing with her again. 

He walked back into the warm club and found both her, Tucker and Kember by the entrance. 

Sam saw him first, scowled at him and then acted like nothing. Danny returned the favor and greeted Tucker and Kemberly like nothing had happened outside. 

“So, you’re all going out on a job?” Kember asked interested and Danny nodded. 

“Yeah, on time we pay Walker back, as they say. You’ll have to entertain yourself while we’re out.” 

“When will you fellas get back?” she asked, getting a little anxious, but masking it well, “you still have to help me with my ghost problem, you know.” 

“We’ll be back before you know it,” Tucker promised and started leading them all to the front to get their coats, “it’s a job not far from here and if my calculations are right, we’ll be back in the city before midnight.” 

“Time to take me home and check my apartment?” Kemberly asked Danny and put her arm in his. 

Sam’s eyes struck lightning by the sight and Danny send her a solemn look, before deciding to spite her and placed his arm around Kember. Pulling her close to his side. 

“How about we go to the movies first and then have dinner at your place?” 

Kemberly blinked by the sudden warmth in his voice and then bloomed into a smile, “I’ll love that. Call me when you get back, sheik – by the way.” 

She pulled him down to her height to kiss him on the lips. 

Danny caught the sight of Sam turning her head away in anger and smiled as Kember ended the deep kiss and whisper in his ear, “it’s hidden well, I’ll keep it safe until you get back to me.” 

He waved after her as she returned to the club’s tables and Tucker pushed him grinning, “smooth.” 

Sam didn’t reply and ignored him as he lead them to an empty ally and formed a portal on the pavement. 

They two of them didn’t share a word throughout the entire trip back to the office for their gear or the jump to the manor and residence of a Mr. P. Dark.


	28. We can’t go on like this, but we can’t stop either

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

Innocence was a fragile thing. 

Nichols had always believed that pure innocence wasn’t something that could be taken from a person with force or tricked from you. Being innocent meant having your heart at the right place, having the right intention without hidden agendas and always question what felt wrong. 

Until this point he had believed Danny to be innocent. He had killed people and ghosts, but never intentionally and all the bad things the boy had been forced to endure had been out of his hands. 

But doing the biddings of gangsters and paying with a young girl’s heart? 

Nichols had to admit he didn’t enjoyed the course of this story and he had a hard time figuring out who to rooting for by now. Somewhat feeling betrayed by the story’s own narrator. 

Danny didn’t deserve any of the things he had been through. He hadn’t deserved to be subject to such torment just because of his supernatural origins. He hadn’t deserved any of it. 

But when the world turned wicked, there was no excuse to turn wicked yourself. 

“I know what you’re thinking,” Danny said suddenly and brought the cop out of his dark thoughts. 

“Then you know I’m a little disappointed,” Nichols grunted and Danny’s expression turned unreadable, “toying with Kemberly that way is wrong and so is stealing on killing on a gangsters bidding.” 

Danny made a scowl, “trust me, I have done worse.” 

Nichols sighed by that, had really hoped it wouldn’t end like that – what horrible things had the kid now done? What was worse than murder and manipulation? 

“My god, Danny, I’m so disappointed in you,” he mumbled and rubbed his eyes. 

“I know,” Danny replied quietly and looked away, “but believe me when I say that you could never be as disappointed in me as I was myself. A hero fallen from grace is never a likable story. Humans want charismatic villains and fallible heroes, but while Vlad was the perfect villain, I had started my walk down a path where no person could return from as a hero.” 

“It’s never too late to do the right thing.” 

“What a human thing to say,” the halfa sneered. 

Nichols felt a shiver run down his spine as the spark of life drained from those blue eyes and the cold man from their first meeting returned and overtook the person in the chair before him. 

“Trust me when I say the story doesn’t getter lighter from now on,” Danny continued emotionlessly, looking less mortal than ever, “the stray path I had started the unholy year of 1927 was long and merciless. I remember the end of the road, still sees it before my eyes sometime, even though I no longer have nightmares about it. At least not that part.” 

A humorless smile tugged in the corner of those perfect cold lips. 

“Vlad awaited me at the end of the road to ruin. Untouched by time and looking like the day I meet him. As always, only I seem to be changed by the time we spend separated. Covered in the blood of innocent and lost to the madness I had become, I remember asking him…” 

Nichols pushed a little back in his seat as the immortal being before him leaned forward with eyes like a cut of the cold winter sky. 

“…’aren’t you proud of what I’ve become? Aren’t you proud of your _son?’_ ” Danny whispered with a voice containing all the broken and unforgiven actions no human could ever hope to receive redemption from. 

“It was the day I finally broke him,” Danny said, eyes still not offering the slightest of emotion, “my unbreakable tormenter, my dark knight and foe cracked before me and wept tears for the thing I had become. No blow or cut could ever had caused him the pain I inflicted him that day.” 

A crackle escaped Danny’s lips, “and all I had to do was become the villain of my own story.” 

Nichols wanted nothing more than to remove that expression from the face of Danny’s, but knew deep down that what he wanted was a story fitting his expectation and nothing more. 

Still he found that he hoped Danny was wrong about his own story, that he could still be saved from all this. 

“I don’t believe that,” the old cop heard himself replying, “Danny, you’re not a monster, I…” 

Nichols ignored the cold eyes and tried to find the right words, “I haven’t known you for more than a few hours, but even I can see that you’re not as lost as you might think. You’re not a bad person, Danny! You’ve just been born and thrown into an impossible life that leaves you little space to do the right thing.” 

He grabbed the kid’s shoulder and ignored just how cold it felt under the shirt. 

“You’re a good person, Danny.” 

Danny didn’t remove his hand or shrug it off. He just tilted his head. Watched the old cop with something that could almost be taken for pity. 

“I think you like me too much to think clearly, Mr. Officer,” Danny said slowly, “don’t pity me yet, the worst has yet to come and then we’ll see just how good you think I am.” 

Danny suddenly looked down at his hands. As if he expected to see something mare the clean skin. The darkness and emotional lack he seemed to have possessed just a second ago, vapored like noting and left a tired young man in its wake. 

“Tell me something, Nichols…what is being good? Is it acting and doing the right thing, no matter how dark your morals might be? – or can a good person be someone with good intentions, but not acting on them?” 

Nichols sighed, “I don’t know, Danny. But guess actions means more than thought.” 

The immortal just nodded, “then no. I’m not a good person. A good person would have saved her.”

   
 

__

_Year 1927, the manor of Sir Pariah Dark in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA_

_****_

_**“I’m not a good person. A good person would have saved her.”**_     

“Looks like the place you would hide a cursed sword in,” Tucker noted with a hint of humor. 

The vast dark manor seemed almost like a cliché or scene of a ghost story. The building wasn’t particular dark, dilapidated or empty looking, but it wouldn’t come as a surprise to them if young boys came here to show off to their friends, in a game of who-dares-to-walk-up-there? 

The papers Walker had offered them pointed to this address as the home and residence of a former mayor of Atlantic city, a man who kept a large collection of curios items and ran the large action in town. 

A haunted sword would without doubt count as a curios item and as Walker’s note stated so bluntly; if you encounter other ghostly items, bring them back as well. 

“Or what do ya think?” Tucker asked and turned around, as none of them had replied or taking an interest in his comment of the house. 

Neither of them was looking at him either…or at each other for that sake. Sam was buried deep in one of the book from the office, plipping through it aggressively and with an expression of forced concentration. 

Danny was standing in a hunched pose, hands buried deep in his pocket and look icily, and voice distant, “sure.” 

Tucker frowned, not knowing what was up with the two of them. 

“Something’s wrong? You two seems a little…tense?” 

“We’re fine,” they both sneered, looked at each other and them snapped back to ignoring the other. 

“Let’s just get this over with,” Danny sighed and moved up to him while changing into his ghost-form, “let’s just get in there, take that stupid sword, get the ghostly part of out of it and get back to Walker with it.” 

“We still don’t know what we’re dealing with,” Sam added annoyed and turned the book for them to see, “says here that the spirit of Halloween is its guardian and undead soul – how are you going to separate a soul from the sword? Try ripping it out and act reckless as always?” 

“ _No_ , Sam,” Danny replied just as annoyed, “I’m going to use my ghost powers to try and reason with this ghost and possible leave the sword – you know, laying all the cards on the table for this ghost, instead of tricking him or being dishonest about what I want?” 

“Uhm…guys?” Tucker joined cautiously, but was ignored. 

“Sometimes people are to thickheaded to handle the whole story,” Sam sneered and closed the book with a laud snap, “or too fragile to handle their own shit or recognize that others were just trying to help them.” 

“Then maybe that someone should just speak up and stop playing with other’s feelings, like some fucking toy they think they can just throw to the side and find untouched again for later!” 

“Maybe that person wouldn’t have done that, had a certain someone just opened up to her from the start and stopped bottling up his emotions for her to sort through!” 

“What the fuck, fellas!?” Tucker interrupted shocked, “what are you two talking about? Who’s hurting and playing around with who? Where is this coming from!?” 

“Just forget it,” Sam muttered and walked towards the manor. 

Tucker tried to get Danny to talk, but he acted as nothing and just headed for the front gates of the manor. 

They all stopped before the heavy iron gate and Danny placed a hand on both of their shoulders, before unceremoniously phasing them both through and hovered into the building. 

Sam shrugged his hand of her as soon as they were safe indoor and Danny glared after her, before following along with a concerned Tucker in tow. 

They passed the fancy parlors, living rooms and trophy room filled with heads of exotic animals, before finally entering a large room filled with glass-cases and pedestals. 

There hadn’t been any sigh of servants of this Mr. Dark, hinting that no one was home, but they kept low just in case and worked in complete silence. 

Tucker and Sam began sorting through the cases from the floor and light around with their flashlight, while Danny made it to the air and used his natural night vision to scan the room from the ceiling. 

Unlike Sojourn’s page, no object had started lightening up or glow by his ghostly presence, but Danny felt a sudden attraction from different spots in the room. He drifted to the nearest and looked down at something looking like a medallion in chain. 

It looked like something a medieval kind or queen would wear and Danny’s eye twitched when he received a ghostly wave from it. 

He formed a ball of heated ecto-power in his hand and watched unfazed as the medallion and case was shattered to nothing but black ashes. 

“ _Danny!_ ” Sam squealed in surprise. 

Danny sapped the next ghostly object without facing her or showing any interest in her, “what? They’re dangerous and you’ll be stupid if you think I’m bringing them back to Walker and his greedy hands.” 

“You could just form a portal and return them to the Ghost Zone where they belong.” 

“We’re only her to get the sword, remember?” Tucker added and lighted into a show-case containing something looking like a spear. 

“Destroy, return, steal – it’s just semantics,” Danny shrugged and moved on to the next show-case, “you two worry too much.” 

Sam muttered something that sounded like his name combined with a curse and continued to search on her own. Danny rolled his eyes and flew to the last show-case – and stopped. 

A sword, green and deter looking with a little metal pumpkin decoration the handle, stood tall and ancient behind the thick glass. The tip hand been stuck into a purple – possible ghostly – looking pumpkin and Danny lifted an eyebrow by the strange display. 

“Spirit of Halloween, huh?” he noted and phased his hand through the glass. 

“What are you doing in my home!” a booming voice roared and Danny toppled the case in surprise. 

The glass-case crashed to the floor and splintered into a million pieces, while Danny changed back to human from slipping on the glass and hurting his head by the impact of the floor. 

The owner of the voice gasped by the sight of destruction and rushed in with a gun held to Danny’s face. Danny guessed they had awoken the owner of the manor, Sir Pariah Dark. 

Even grey-haired and into his sixties, the old man still held some resembles with the younger picture from Walker’s papers. 

The broad shoulders, wide chest and huge frame could have fitted that of an ancient king and the white hair and eyepatch was only adding to the image of long forgotten royalty. 

Sir Dark’s ancestors had long gone lost all claim to a throne in east Europe, but still held the demeanor of one. 

“Woah, woah, let’s just keep calm, man,” Tucker eased and lifted his hands to show the man he meant no beef, “we’ve just…uh, our car broke down a little form here and we were just looking for help.” 

Danny sighed, already knew that such a story wouldn’t work with a gun wielding man like this and was proved right, when the gun was pressed closer to his forehead. 

Danny knew he probably should have taking an interest, or at least part in the heated exchange of threats and excuses thrown through the room, but couldn’t really get into it. 

The last past day’s problems and threats, actions and hurt was beginning to drain him of self-restrain and the anger he had tried to keep below the surface was showing its ugly head again. 

What was he supposed to do to get some damn peace!? 

The barrel end of the gun poked his temple and Danny scowled. Sir Dark began yelling again and Danny’s hand started to flare. 

“You dirty thieves get down on your stomach and stay there until I’ve call the sheriff and –” 

“Shut up,” Danny growled and shot the man’s exposed side. 

Sir Dark was sent flying through the room and collided with one of the biggest show-cases in the room. He hit it head first and slide down to lay unconscious on the floor. 

“Oh, My God, _Danny!_ ” Sam screamed panicky and Tucker ran to check on the man. 

“He’s still breathing, he’s okay!” Tucker informed and gave the little spirals of smoke coming from the huge man a worried glance, “sorta…” 

“Danny, you can’t just shoot humans like that!” Sam yelled and grabbed him to shake him. 

Danny shrugged her off him and grabbed the sword with a scowl. It proved to be harder to pull it out of the pumpkin than first expected, but the purple fruit gave up its claim nonetheless and Danny lifted the sword to inspect it. 

The ghostly presences seemed to be weaker now and Danny tried touching the blade, but was stopped by Sam. 

“You idiot! If you touch it you’ll get sent to a dimension to experience your wort fear for eternity!” 

“Stop telling me what to do,” Danny replied angry and tore back the sword from her hands, “I know what I’m doing.” 

“Yeah, right – you’ve just knocked an old man down! What’s next!? You’re gonna kill him and do as Walker said? I thought we had a plan!” 

“The plan was to get the sword, filter out the ghost and take down Walker,” Danny defended and formed a portal beneath them, “so let’s just go!” 

The green light of the portal was killed as it closed behind the three and left the room in darkness and returning silence. 

Sir Dark groaned from his spot on the floor and composed himself with some difficulties, due to aching bones and a bump forming on the back of his head. His hand found an abandoned flashlight and he turned it around to read the words on the side. 

_Craftwork of Mike and son. New York City._

“I’ll find you,” he growled, but was then distracted from the flashlight. 

He cracked open his only eye in shock as a strange purple glow started to form in the middle of the floor. 

The purple pumpkin lifted itself of the floor with a firework of green sparks and a beam of green ectoplasmic light rose to the ceiling and left Dar speechless, as the pumpkin turned into a swarm of black bats and revealed a black knight. 

The ghost roared with raised fist, burning cape and hair of purple fire lighted up the room in a dangerous display. 

A dark knight. Sir Dark rose slowly. As a child, he had been filled with many a story of this legendary knight and listened to his grandfather’s tales of how their family in the medieval times had been guarded by a faithful knight of darkness. 

A knight once serving his ancestors and followed them into battle. The ghost of said knight had been the possession of his family name ever since and would continue to do so should the Dark family ever need his services in needing times. 

The stories were proved true, when the terrifying ghost bowed down to kneel before the old man. 

“My liege,” the knight boomed with a deafening voice and iron-clad fist on his heart, “ones again woken from my slumber, I shall thee serves into victory and never encumber. Let me be your sword, you shield, your justice – allow me to serve thee, son of Dark.” 

Pariah Dark’s lips formed into a satisfies smirk, “very well, you shall serve me, Fright Knight. Bring me those thieves that stole my sword and let them know true fear.” 

Fright Knight’s green eyes narrowed into slits, “yes, true fear shall spread for my hands.”     

The phone rang two times before someone picked up at the other end and Danny pressed the handset close to his ear as one of the waiters at Vice End spoke. 

“Please tell Kemberly that I need to speak with her,” he said and waited until the line was taken up again. 

_“Danny! That was fast, where are you?”_

Danny sighed in relief of hearing her voice, he had feared Walker would have found out about the missing page by now, “it’s best you don’t know in case Walker starts asking, "listen, we're almost done here, when do you get of work?" 

_"Around an hour from now,_ " she replied lightly, " _but if you ask me nicely I could always make one of the girls cover for me and start our date early._ " 

Danny guessed that could work, the more distance between her and Walker the better, "then how about you meet me at the Pictures? See a movie or two. I'll be there in around five minutes." 

_"Sounds like a plan, Danny – I'll pack my stuff and swagger down there – you better be there, don't make a girl wait, you know."_

"I promise to be there," Danny said and started to draw enough energy to form a humanoid duplicate to meet her, "have you seen any signs of Walker?" 

_"Not really – wait, he's here and going to his office. He doesn’t look angry if that’s what you worry about...well he doesn’t look that zippy either, but that’s just his normal face."_

"Right," Danny muttered, glad to know Walker hadn't built up any suspicion yet and looked up as he thought he’d herd something. When he had stared ahead without finding anything, he shifted ear and rubbed his eyes, "try and leave without him noticing and stay around people – and don't go home. I'll be there before you know it." 

_"Alright, Danny. I see you there,_ " she retorted happily and ended the call. 

Danny put down the handset and ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. He was one problem shorter, but the list was still long and the one on the top still waited for him in the other room with a grumpy Sam and confused Tucker. 

He dragged the phone and line back with him to the open room of their office and found his two (best?) friends in an argument with the Soul Shredder between them on his desk. 

"She’s good?" Tucker asked as Danny placed the phone back on the desk and he nodded. 

"Yeah, she's okay. Walker's still obvious about our plan and hopefully he won't get suspicious before my duplicate has Ember brought to safety. Any progress with the sword?" 

"Not really," Tucker admitted and gestured to the green sword with one of his inventions, "it’s ghostly, alright, but I'm not sure if there a ghost inside of it. My instruments don’t catch any sign of a core wave." 

"And the book doesn’t really offer any explanation of it either," Sam added and rummage through her pile of books to get an old tome, "the chronicles of the Fright Knight tells that it's his sword and works as an extension of his powers, but it doesn’t say anything about whenever he lives in it or not." 

Danny glanced to the sword and tried picking up any signs of a ghostly presence, but found nothing. Guess he didn't have to fear hurting any ghosts then. 

"Alright, then this shouldn´t be a problem," he said and fired at the sword. 

The ecto-ray was easily deflected by the swords blade and they all jumped down into cover, as the ray ricocheted around the office and end up hitting the ceiling. Leaving a black mark. 

"Nice job," Sam noted sarcastic and Danny returned her remark with a dry look. 

"Maybe we could try melting it?" Tucker suggested and Danny collected a heated pool of ecto-energy in his right hand. 

The concentrated energy soon became too hot for the two humans to be near and they moved back as Danny placed his hand above the sword. 

Vapor started to drift of the sword, but it remained intact, while papers and different objects on the desk began to melt and smolder. 

Danny stopped as the phone burst into blue flames and Tucker hurried to pull of his jacket to smother the fire. The halfa scratched his neck and picked up the sword in lack of better. 

The sword was heavy and probably meant to be used with two hands like a broadsword, although the blade didn't look that wide or heavy made. 

Other than the green metal and ghostly hue, the pumpkin handle was really the only indication that it belonged to the spirit of Halloween and Danny wondered briefly if the ghost only showed around Halloween. 

That would explain the Fright Knight’s absence at least. 

"Anything in the book suggesting how to destroy it?" he asked and Sam flipped through a couple of pages. 

"No, but there's something here about caging the Fright Knight and seal him in a forced slumber – but that's only an option on the night of Halloween, so I guess that won’t be a solution." 

"It’s a shame he's not the spirit of Christmas, that would give us 30 days to work on, instead of 11 months," Tucker joked. 

"Yeah, but the deadline’s tonight," Danny reminded him, "I'm not handing a sword that can send people to the dimension of their worst fear to Walker. That’s too much power for one gangster." 

"Or maybe we should," Tucker suddenly said and took the sword from Danny, looking it over. 

"Uhm, hallo? Earth to Tuck?" Sam snorted, "didn't we just agree that we're not handing over that sword to a psychopath?" 

"I know, but how about instead of handing him a ghost sword that banishes people to other dimensions, we hand him a ghost sword that's harmless? The only prove of it being able to send people to another dimension is from lore, right? It can't be our fault if it’s not true." 

Sam and Danny looked at each other and Sam crossed her arms, "sure, but where would we get a ghost sword looking like this one? This is really the first sword from the Ghost Zone we have ever really seen." 

Tucker pointed to Danny, "we don't have to find one, Danny can just make one." 

"Say what?" Danny asked confused. 

"You make that green chain all the time, man. And I’ve seen you create some pretty strong goo with your ectoplasm to – making a sword really shouldn't be a problem for you." 

"He's right," Sam admitted and both of them turned to Danny expectedly, "it doesn’t really have to be a good sword, just good enough for Walker to believe it's real long enough for us to take him down." 

Danny bit his lip and looked down at the sword in Tucker's hands. 

He had to admit the color of his ghost-chains and the Soul Shredder was almost identical and he had no problem forming those on a daily basis…but a bigger object like a sword? 

"I don't know...that would take a shit load of energy. How am I supposed to form something like that and have a human looking duplicate entertaining Kemberly at the same time?" 

"She can wait the twenty minutes it takes for you to regain energy," Sam just said, "the worst that can happen is that she gets into the Pictures without you to wait. She'll be around people and we'll have a sword. It’s that easy, Danny." 

Danny didn't like that nasty tone she used while mentioning Kemberly, but guessed she was right. His duplicate would be late, but it wouldn't be the worst that could happen. 

The most important was to neutralize Walker anyway and a fake sword was the best plan. 

"Alright," he finally said and tried summoning the same ectoplasmic-energy he used to form his chains. 

Tucker and Sam watched along, as the green material began to grow in his hands and writher into form. Danny used the Soul Shredder in Tucker's hands for scale and added some more energy to thickening the blade in his hand. 

The handle came last and he used a little more energy than first wanted on the decoration to get the pumpkin just right. Danny had never been good at crafting stuff, but with enough imagination you could recognize the deformed lump on the end of handle as a pumpkin. 

"Good enough," Tucker guessed with a shrug, "it’s not perfect, but it’s only us who knows what it looks like, so it should be enough to fool Walker." 

"It will have to – we're running out of time," Danny warned and nodded to the clock on the wall. 

They gathered their things and Danny secured the fake sword on his back, while the real Soul Shredder was locked inside their weapon arsenal behind the two bookshelves. Danny made gesture to form a portal, but was stopped by Tucker with a gentle hand. 

"How about you save your strength and we take the car instead?" 

"Right," Danny replied and began concentrating on reforming new energy, as they all took the elevator. 

Vlad turned visible as the elevator left the floor and he moved to the shelves with a pleased expression. Having just seen the code to the security, he opened the fake bookshelf without a worry about ghost traps and picked up his reward. 

The sword held a nice weight to it and he wielded it a couple of times to test its durability, before moving to the open books on Miss. Manson's desk. Red eyes ran through the pages and collected the few details he hadn’t picked up from the three's conversation. 

Vlad read Walker's papers one more time, having only read them over Mr. Foley's shoulder back at the club ones and when he concluded that he had all he needed, he simply crumbled the papers in his gloved hand and turned them to ashes with fire. 

He had to admit the little team wasn’t completely hopeless when it came to be crafty and he doubted a mere human like Mr. Walker would know the sword was a forgery before he tried to banish someone. 

Vlad himself had formed swords out of ghostly energy before and cold only nod his head in admiration to Daniel’s honor as a ghostly smith. 

An object this heavy and large would take up a lot of energy to maintain – before the fake sword was dissolved, Daniel would be out of juice and easier to handle when Vlad got his hands on him. 

Hearing the voice of that blasted little singer in the other end of the phone and watching Daniel smile had been almost enough to make Vlad break his concentration and reveal his suppressed core and invisibility, but the thought of breaking her thin neck later had kept him from exposing himself. 

Daniel hadn’t noticed the older halfa right next to him, although the young man had seemed to look at him for just a second or two. 

It was the first in many years those eyes had looked upon Vlad with something other than anger or resentment and although Daniel hadn’t done it intentional, it had meant something to Vlad. 

Yes, Vlad had made a decision. Tonight, would be the night they left New York. 

A second ghost-signature joined the room as Skulker phased through the wall and the metal-clad ghost grinned wicked. 

"The whelp and his humans has set course for the Club." 

"I see," Plasmius replied with a fanged smirk and turned human before securing the sword to his hip, "then let’s join the party, hmm?"


	29. Danny loses his job, Vlad hires a ghost and the humans get the rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny learned that he hadn't killed Spectra  
>  _“Maybe, but is it just me or does this whole life-force stealing business sound a lot like Spectra?”_ br />  
>  _“Yeah, what happened to her by the way?” Tucker added and Danny felt his palms get sweaty._  
>  _“I helped her cross over, remember?” Danny reminded them and they both made agreeing sounds._
> 
> And now both she and Vlad works for Walker  
>  _“Tempting,” Walker purred and put up a grin that was all but malicious, “but there’s just one problem. I can’t have two halfas in my organization if one is set on killing the other. Such display would be against the rules.”_  
>  _“Halfas is a rare race, Mr. Walker. Like authentic ming vases,” Vlad entrusted and leaned forward with entwined fingers, “and as all good businessmen, I believe it’s only logic to smash the cheapest one to raise the others value to make it priceless. As I said, I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.”_  
>  _“Then we have a deal,” Walker concluded and offered Vlad his hand_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile Danny and his friends stole a ghost sword on Walker's orders  
>  _Sir Dark rose slowly. As a child, he had been filled with many a story of this legendary knight and listened to his grandfather’s tales of how their family in the medieval times had been guarded by a faithful knight of darkness. A knight once serving his ancestors and followed them into battle. The ghost of said knight had been the possession of his family name ever since and would continue to do so should the Dark family ever need his services in needing times._  
>  _The stories were proved true, when the terrifying ghost bowed down to kneel before the old man._  
>  _“My liege,” the knight boomed with a deafening voice and iron-clad fist on his heart, “ones again woken from my slumber, I shall thee serves into victory and never encumber. Let me be your sword, you shield, your justice – allow me to serve thee, son of Dark.”_  
>  _Pariah Dark’s lips formed into a satisfies smirk, “very well, you shall serve me, Fright Knight. Bring me those thieves that stole my sword and let them know true fear.”_
> 
> And preparations for a final confrontation with the gangster is made  
>  _Tucker pointed to Danny, "we don't have to give Walker the sword, Danny can just make one."_  
>  _"Say what?" Danny asked confused._  
>  _"You make that green chain all the time, man. And I’ve seen you create some pretty strong goo with your ectoplasm to – making a sword really shouldn't be a problem for you. It doesn’t really have to be a good sword, just good enough for Walker to believe it's real long enough for us to take him down."_  
>  _Danny bit his lip, "I don't know...that would take a shit load of energy. How am I supposed to form something like that and have a human looking duplicate entertaining Kemberly at the same time?"_  
>  _"She can wait the twenty minutes it takes for you to regain energy," Sam just said, "the worst that can happen is that she gets into the Pictures without you to wait. She'll be around people and we'll have a sword. It’s that easy, Danny."_  
>  _Danny didn't like that nasty tone she used while mentioning Kemberly, but guessed she was right. His duplicate would be late, but it wouldn't be the worst that could happen._
> 
> But they aren't the only ones...  
>  _Bullet seethed back at the front of the club as the car drove of and into the night. Three whit-clad men walked to stand by his side and watched the fading light of their leader’s vehicle._  
>  _“I’ll take it that he didn’t drop operation ‘requiting spooks’?” Charles concluded and Bullet cracked his neck loudly._  
>  _“I don’t care if it’s that leech he’s fancying, who’s having him under a spell or something, this has gone for too long.”_  
>  _“Agree,” another agent added and send Bullet a side-glance, “maybe it’s time for some change. How does new management sounds to you fellas?”_  
>  _“Then let’s get to work and purge this organization back to bleach white,” Bullet smirked and went for the cars with his men. They had a wer-ghost to take for a walk._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Welcome back!  
> Hope everyone is having fun in the fallen leaves and having time to look forward to halloween - i am!  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, Vice End, New York, USA_

Walker and his goons was waiting for them in a private lounge of the club. 

Danny stepped inside with Tucker and Sam in tow, all of them flanked by stoic men in white suits and had a hard time not feeling like criminals led to the scaffold. 

"Nice welcome comity," Sam noted dryly and was pushed the last stretch to the heavy desk the leader of the Guys in White was seated behind. 

Looking all intimidating and important. 

"You're late," Walker stated and received a sassy shrug from Danny. 

"Got caught in the traffic, New Yorker minutes, you know." 

"Don't play an idiot," Walker warned and looked them over with a cold grey glance, "I don't see a sword either, Mr. Fonten." 

Danny responded by changing into Phantom and revealed the green sword strapped to his back. Walker made a sign for the nearest man to take it, but Danny moved out of the way and placed a secure hand on the handle. 

"About that – we like to negotiate first a little and get some arrangement fixed before you get it." 

Walker scowled, "this isn't up to debate, young man. Your mission was to bring back the sword to me and get your pay. End of story, now hand it over." 

"No," Danny stated determinate and lifted a flaring hand to keep the white suits at bay, "until you agreed on our terms and keep them to the last word, this sword stays with me." 

Walker rose from the desk in seething anger, "you will hand over the sword and be a good boy, or I'll have all of you punished for this nonsense. Now drop the sword!" 

Danny narrowed his eyes and both Tucker and Sam nodded gravely. Danny turned back to Walker with an unreadable expression and pulled the sword to hold it out in front of the gangster. 

"Alright," he replied nonchalant and formed a portal on the floor without blinking, "I’ll drop it then." 

Walker’s eyes narrowed dangerously. He beaconed for his men to take a step back and stepped out from behind the desk to meet Danny himself in a safe distance on the open floor. 

"Fine, what is your demand, half-ghost?" 

"Break the contract and allow us and our family to leave the city," Sam replied for them all and her two friends nodded. 

"You'll allow us to leave without harm and free Kemberly of her contract as well,” Danny added, “you won't try to take any contact to us ever again or try to harm us in the future. We won’t tell any ghost about you or your hideouts and in return you won't tell anyone about my status as a halfa." 

Walker suddenly smirked, "I’m afraid that won't be possible. Now hand over the sword." 

Danny guessed they would have to do this the hard way and smiled on his own, "fine, you asked for it." 

The sword dropped into the portal, making several of the men rush to save it, but to Danny's surprise and horror, the sword stopped an inch above the portal and lifted back into the air. 

Danny's worst suspensions was confirmed when blue mist left his lips and a smock Penelope Spectra turned visible with the sword secure in her manicured hands. 

"Long time no see, Danny-boy," she greeted flirtatious and Danny clenched his teeth. 

"Spectra." 

"But," Tucker uttered confused, "she crossed over! No one returns from there!" 

"Oh, how embarrassing," the female specter mused and cooed at Danny, "you told them you made me cross over? Me? How awkward for you. Too shy to tell your best friends that you believed me do have died for your hands?" 

"Danny, what the hell?" Sam asked accusingly and Danny wished himself anywhere else than this room. Why did Spectra have to work for Walker of all people? 

The situation only worsened when strong arms suddenly grabbed him from behind and Danny looked up to meet the dark grin of Vlad Plasmius. 

From Tucker and Sam's startled outlets to judge, Danny guessed two duplicates had them sized them as well. 

"Hello, love – missed me?" Vlad asked teasingly in his ear and Danny glowered hatefully. 

"Let me take aim and then you can ask me again, Cheesehead." 

"Careful with the words, sweetie," Spectra warned and handed the sword over to Walker's waiting hands, "don't get yourself into a deeper mess you can't untangle with therapy." 

"Finally," Walker whispered and lifted the sword in triumph, "now, I will be unstoppable!" 

Behind him, Bullet narrowed his eyes in dissatisfaction and shared a glace with the rest of the men. A little flute was pulled silently from inside Bullet’s suit jacket and he blew it just as quietly. 

Spectra cried out as a large furry hand grabbed her ankle and pulled her down on the ground. The halfas and humans who wasn’t involved in Bullet’s coup, stared in disbelieve as an enormous wolfman phased through the floor and growled at them with a wide row of sharp teeth. 

Spectra was still locked on the floor by the beast, out of the game and Bullet moved up behind the shocked Walker in a swift motion. Pressed a gun to his head. 

"Hand me the sword, Walker." 

Walker's expression was the face of absolute indignation and his voice turned dangerous low, "are you out of your mind!? Call back Wulf and put down that gun or you’ll regret it, you traitor!" 

Bullet scoffed jeeringly, "the only traitor in this room is the man who fraternize with ghosts and take ghostly weapons into hand. It’s time the Guys in White gets bleached back to purity – starting with getting rid of dirt like you." 

"Shoot him!" Walker commanded and send each of his men a wrathful look, "I said SHOOT HIM!" 

None of the men reacted on his command, instead they all raised their ecto-fueled guns to the ghosts in the room and Danny gulped as a couple of them pointe to him as well. 

“Hmm, time to go,” Vlad whispered in his ear. 

"No!" Danny protested as he felt the first sign of Vlad collecting energy for teleportation and struggled to get free. Couldn’t have him leaving Sam and Tucker in this mess. 

Walker used the men's focus on Danny's squirming as a distraction and regained the entire room’s attention, as he wielded around and trusted the sword into Bullet's guts. Making him drop the flute. 

The one-eyed man spit blood down his white jacket and collapsed to the floor, his entire suit soon turning completely red. Wulf sniffed hungrily and released Spectra a bit. 

Walker blinked conflicted and looked down at the green sword, now dripping with the blood of his former henchman and trusted comrade now lying dead on the floor. 

"It's a fake," he concluded and turned around with eyes promising death, "where is it!? Where is the Soul Shredder!?" 

"Destroyed, you loser! That and your cursed page!" Danny spat and Vlad's grip in him tightened painfully. 

“What page,” Vlad whispered with a hint of anger. 

Oh no… 

Walker roared and lounged for him in madness, but before either Vlad, Danny or any of the gun-possessing men could make a move, the entire ceiling was blown to pieces. 

They all looked up in mild astonishment, as a black knight and a hell-resembling horse burst through the hole in the roof with an old human man on the saddle. 

"Fools!" the Fright Knight boomed and pointed to the fake sword that Danny had mostly allowed to melt into a puddle, now that the cat was out of the bag, "no sword of mine would possess such weakness and feebleness! The scent of my sword is filling this very room! Bring it to me or feel the wrath of Halloween!" 

"It's November, you dirty spook," one of the agents scowled and shot at the knight. 

The spirit of Halloween dodged without much effort and returned the fire with something looking like a purple ecto-meteor of hellfire. 

The unfortunate man in white was burned to a crisp and the men caught under the fallen pieces of the ceiling and first floor, cried out in panic and begged their fellow agents to get them free. 

Spectra phased down the floor now that Wulf had forgotten all about her and the were-ghost hurried to grab Bullet’s corps by the neck and phased him out with him. 

Sir Dark jumped of the winged horse and fired three gunshots into the missing ceiling to get everyone’s attention. 

"Silence! You serve me, ghost. The sword is to be handed back to me and no one else!" 

The Fright Knight bowed his head, but it seemed a bit forced, "my apologize, the sword will be rightfully returned to you, my liege." 

Parish Dark smirked by that and then scowled by the sight of Walker, "I should have known a dirty rat like you couldn't take a no for an answer. Sending children to steal what you can't buy, how cowardly of you, walker." 

"I told you to kill him and the sword's ghost!" Walker sneered at Danny and the Halfa grinned in return. 

"I guess I can kiss the employs of the month title goodbye then, right?" 

Sir Dark seemed to have lost the last of his patience with them and pointed to them all, "Fright Knight, kill those thieves and tear down this whorehouse if you have to. Get that sword!" 

"As you command, my liege," the ghost replied and raised his hands. Cracks of purple fire opened up and began to run like rivers through the room, making the building shook violently and men cry out in panic. 

"Oh, _fudge buckets_ ," Vlad cursed, redrew his duplicates and pushed Danny out of the way to get the knight. 

The younger halfa landed hard on the ground and found that he had almost collided with the puddle of Bullet’s blood. A little green flute was swimming in the middle and Danny grabbed it. 

Two familiar pairs of hands seized him and hurried to run to the door. Danny didn’t bother checking if it was locked or not and just phased him, Tucker and Sam through and crashed into the staircase leading up to Walker’s office. 

"You two okay?" he asked breathless. 

Sam replied by raising her gun to his face and Danny ducked in shock and was almost deafened by the shot. Behind him, Spectra screamed by the hit and feel to the floor. 

"Now we are," Sam replied and dragged both men to their feet before pointing the gun back on the female specter. 

"You little bitch!" Spectra seethed and held on to her wounded shoulder, "you're going to pay for destroying my flawless skin!" 

"Oh, shut up," Danny scowled, "why are you and Plasmius working for Walker? What's the deal here?" 

Spectra grinned wickedly, "oh, baby boy, you of all should know the pleasures of having a powerful man to pick the grapes for you. But between you and me, I would break all ties with someone like Plasmius, he doesn’t understand you like I do." 

"I'm not going back to be your private misery ticket," Danny sneered and a gleeful expression lighted up Spectra’s features. 

"We'll see about that," she whispered and phased down the floor before Sam could get a second shot through. 

Both Tucker and Sam turned to him and Danny opened his mouth to explain why he had kept the truth about Spectra from them, but Sam beat him to the punch and put up a hand. 

"Later, you’ll explain later – right now we got to take down Walker and Fright Knight." 

"Right," Danny replied thankfully and all of them froze by the sound of an animalistic growl behind them. 

The were-ghost moved closer from the shadows he had been hiding in and they all cringed by the sight of the mauled Bullet behind him. The blood was everywhere and most of it caked in the ghost’s black fur. 

“Uhm…good boy?” Tucker tried and the ghost roared at him in return. 

The ghost suddenly shocked them all by talking – not a language they knew or understood, but human words nonetheless. Tucker blinked and responded in the same unknown language. 

Both Sam and Danny just stared at him. 

“What? It’s Esperanto, my grandma used to speak it,” Tucker said, awfully pleased with himself. 

“Then, what does he want?” Sam asked suspiciously and the wolfman pointed to Danny with a few words. Tucker looked down at Danny’s hand. 

“He says you have the cursed flute that forces him to obey men.” 

Danny blinked and then remembered the little green flute he had picked up earlier, “oh, sorry – here you go.” 

The ghost caught it in the air and grinned strangely humanlike with a, “Amiko!” before pulling them all in for a bone-crushing, but amazingly soft hug. 

An explosion from outside made them all jump and the were-ghost send them one last cheeky fang-filled grin, before slicing the air with his claws, creating something that looked like a blue portal and jumped through. 

“Nifty, he and I should start a portal club,” Danny noted and rose to follow his friends back to the sound of fighting. 

Danny laid a hand on both their shoulders and phased them back into Walker’s office. 

A hole in the wall showed them that the fight had moved out into the streets and several agents ran around firing up into the air, where Vlad, Skulker and Fright Knight was fighting in a storm of pink, green and purple ecto-blasts. 

Danny shot into the air, while Sam and Tucker ran down to join the ground fight between Walker and Sir Pariah Dark on the Fright Knight's fire-breathing horse. 

Skulker saw Danny as the first and flashed a metallic grin, "whelp! At last we meet again." 

"Yeah, Yeah, happy anniversary and all that – now move, I have to stop Fright Knight before he kills half the city." 

"Skulker wouldn't be so sure about that," the hunter replied sneaky and Danny turned his attention to the fight between Vlad and the knight...or maybe one-sided fight. 

While Fright Knight was putting all his will into making an end to the red eyed Halfa, Vlad was mostly dodging and flying around the knight while talking. Danny watched as the Fright Knight's blows stopped altogether and he seemed to listen to Vlad with interest. 

"A deal?" Danny head him ask curiously, but all further talk was interrupted, when Pariah Dark knocked Vlad away with the wing of the dark horse. 

"Stop fooling around, your useless piece of flammable metal and take down those ghosts!" he yelled and the Fright Knight narrowed his green slits. 

"The Fright Knight will heed your command, oh mortal, as soon as his blade is returned to his rightful hands." 

"You mean this one?" Vlad asked with a cunning smirk and revealed the sword that had been hidden with his human-half. 

"Bring it to me!" Pariah bellowed and Vlad wacked a finger teasingly. 

"Now, now, that’s no way to behave for a king – or wait, your right to the throne of Lichtenstein was ended fifty years ago – or really your first cousin fourth removed was. You might be a Dark, Sir Pariah, but you will need a magnifying glass to find any specs of blue blood in those veins of yours." 

"How _dare_ you!?" Pariah raged and didn't catch the change in the Fright Knight's demeanor. 

"Oh no," Danny muttered and shot forward to grab the angry man, before his mutinous knight could blast him of the saddle with a purple ecto-blast. 

"Let me go, you imbecilic!" Pariah yelled and tried fighting Danny of as they shot towards ground. 

Danny ignored the man's fists and speeded up to get back to the safe ground. 

"Stop hitting me, I'm trying to save your life!" 

Danny huffed as all air was knocked out of him by a blast from his left and rolled across the sidewalk with Pariah landing two meters behind him. 

Danny cracked open his eyes to find Spectra grinning above him and she send a fist to the bleeding wound on the side of his temple to subdue him before he could put up a fight. 

Danny groaned in pain and protested weakly as she digged her nails into his chest right above his core. 

"No, please," Danny begged as all his misery and fears burst through the cracks of his mind and took over his senses. 

Spectra licked her lips in delight and inhaled his despair, getting younger and more beautiful every second. 

"Oh, you have no idea how much I missed this," she whispered and ignored the tears that started to run down his cheeks, "I have it all planned down for us, Danny-boy. A nice little lair of mine in the Ghost Zone, where you can keep me young and beautiful for all eternity. You’re going to love it. With you, I won't need to feed one anyone for decades and you get to feel like you made a difference – isn't that nice, Danny? You get to sacrifice yourself for all those puny little humans that would have to lose their insignificant little lives for my sake. Feels good to be a hero, doesn’t it?" 

She laughed hauntingly and drew blood with her nails, making him cry out in both mental and physical pain. 

"I'll promise I'll take good care of you, that bad man to Plasmius is never going to find you there." 

"Allow me to challenge that," Vlad growled and send her flying with a kick. 

Danny curled in on himself and watched through wet eyelashes how Vlad grabbed Spectra by the neck and killed her rant of excuses and compromises. 

"You seem to like causing others a great deal of pain, Mrs. Spectra, allow me to help you find your peace now that your services won't be need anymore," he drawled darkly and send Danny a smirk, "the Unworld is the land of misery after all, and I’ll make you the queen of it." 

Danny closed his eyes as Vlad teleported away with the screaming Penelope Spectra and sobbed brokenhearted in his own paralyzed state. 

The haunting memories and hurtful emotions weighed him down like a milestone and threatened to crush him completely, as he finally stumbled to his knees and vomited on the pavement. 

Pariah groaned from his own spot on the sidewalk and grabbed Danny's arm in a tight grip. 

"You, get me a gun and bring me to safety this instant!" 

Danny didn't have to come up with a spiteful reply to tell the man to go fuck himself, as they were both knocked back to the ground by the power of the Fright Knight’s horse and its wide wingspan. 

The Fright Knight wielded his sword and bellowed with a clear voice. 

"Foolish mortal! You have uttered your last command and claim to any ghost's service. With the lead of my new masters and the power that is vested in me, I banish you to an eternity of your worst fear and torment!" 

"Wait!" Danny protested, but too late. 

Pariah gasped as the Soul Shredder sliced through him and left him surprisingly unwounded. 

Both stared at the unmarred skin of the man and Pariah raised a triumphing finger with a mocking "ha!", when he suddenly was no more and no sign of him was left on the spot he had ones occupied. 

Danny stared at the now empty air where Pariah’s grim face had been just a second ago. 

"What the...what did you – !?" 

"His body and soul now rest in my dimension of fear! Long live Lord Plasmius," the Fright Knight exclaimed victorious and rode off to slay more of the Guys in White. 

Danny made move to stop him, but was grabbed by Skulker from behind and raised to his feet. 

"And you're coming with me, whelp. Plasmius wants you brought to his place." 

"Like hell I will!" Danny shouted furiously and knocked his head back over to give the ghost a reverse headbutt. 

Skulker cried out in surprise and Danny concentrated all his reexperienced misery and fear into pure hatred and jumped the ghost without mercy. 

Skulker tried grabbing him again, but Danny hadn’t been a Halfa for twenty-seven years without learning a thing or two about dirty fighting and send a blast to the joining of the ghost's metal arm. 

The arm popped off by the socket and Danny used its blade to pierce the ghost through the chest. 

To his great surprise, that didn't seem to stop Skulker at all and Danny dodged the angry ghost’s remaining arm. Danny gathered energy to his leg and kicked Skulker's legs from right under him with a low kick. 

The giant collided with the ground like a tree and Danny popped of his last arm to neutralize him completely. Skulker struggled to get free, but Danny kept him still with his thighs and began to fight with the helmet with bared teeth. 

Skulker's gruff voice suddenly turned squeaky and high-pitched, as the helmet's joining snapped and the shell fell to the ground. Danny stared down at the little control room where a green blob was seated and returned his stare with angry red eyes. 

"How dare you!" it squeaked and shook its little green fists at him, "no one humiliates Skulker, me the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter!" 

"I think 'smallest', would be more fitting," Danny mocked and grabbed the little green ghost before he could get away, "funny, I always believed you to be a cyborg – but really you're just a squeaky toy in a fancy bucket." 

"I will have your pelt to hang on my wall!" the blob threatened and Danny tightened his grip with a jeering grimace. 

To think he had once feared this ghost, even made him the center of many a nightmare of his sister's death. 

How stupid of him. 

He continued to squeeze the ghost until a gentle hand was placed on his shoulder and a cautious voice told him it was time to stop. Danny turned his dazed eyes to find Tucker and Sam, both looking down on him with worry and something he could almost believe to be... fear. 

"Let go of him or you kill him," Sam advised carefully and opened his tight fist one finger at a time. 

The wheezing Skulker fell to the pavement in a puddle of ectoplasm and Danny continued at stare at him, as the two lifted him from the scraps of the robot suit and began dragging him to the parking lot. 

Behind them, the fight and screams of the Men in White continued to fill the night and the smell of burning stone and tree spread from the wrecked building that had once been a Club called _Vice End._

   
 

Skulker's beated and ecto-stained form was carefully picked up from the ground and Vlad removed a speck of pavement or two from the little body in his hand. 

"Looks like the dear Daniel wasn't as weakened as I believe him to be," Plasmius mused and took in the sight of the damaged and burning site around him. 

Bodies of white suited men – or former white, now black or red – littered the streets like fallen dominos and made a rather macabre scenario along with the ruined building to his left and the burned or still burning cars parked around either side of the street’s sidewalks. 

The first wails of sirens could be heard far off and Vlad decided it was time to wrap things up and leave, before the police and following press got hold of a story about how ghosts had taking it upon themselves to level the city. 

The Fright Knight landed beside him on his horse and pulled of Walker from the saddle to land before Vlad's Black boots. The former mafia boss coughed painfully and stared up at Plasmius with pure hatred. 

"You never intended to kill that boy or rule this city by my side. You planned this from the start," he glowed and spat on Vlad's boot. 

"Silence, mortal!" the black knight sneered and kicked the man, knocking out a few teeth in the doing. 

"Yes, it must be very frustrating for you," Vlad replied in mocking sympathy, "but you can save yourself some pain by being useful to me one last time. Tell me, the 'page' Daniel mentioned earlier, that couldn't possibly be one of the legendary Sojourn's journal pages, now could it?" 

Walker stayed silent and Vlad tilted his head, suddenly getting an impression. 

"You have no idea who Sojourn is, do you?" Vlad asked slowly, already knowing the answer and shook his head in humorous forlornness, "it’s almost comical how such powerful pages keep fallen into the hands of clueless imbeciles. Seems to me you were useless from the start, Mr. Walker, but don't worry, you will never be a disappointment to anyone ever again." 

He turned his back on the man and listened only half-interested to the sound of Walker's death struggles, before the Fright Knight broke his neck in a clean snap. 

Vlad phased Skulker’s destroyed robot suit down below the pavement to hide all evidence of ghostly involvement on the scene and placed the still unconscious Skulker safely in the pocket of his tunic. 

"Just like Rome, all roads seem to lead back to my Little Badger," he whispered and teleported away. 

He had a Halfa and certain page to hunt down.

   
 

 _Danny..._

_...Danny..._

He cracked open an eye and tried focusing, but the world seemed incredible blurry and continued to swim before his eye. The darkness returned like an act of mercy and he lost track of time. 

_Danny..._

The world returned a little brighter and steadier. He turned his head to find Tucker leaning against a metal shelf and Sam fussing around him. 

She took of her shirt to rip it in two and Danny watched unfocused as she started to bandage Tucker’s arm, her mouth forming words, but no sound reaching him. 

She turned her head to him, looking alarmed and forming more words, but Danny felt the pull of unconsciousness return and closed his eyes. 

The whisper returning. 

_...Danny..._

_Danny...I’ll see you there...._

He sat up with a startled gasp and looked around in panic. Sam lifted her tired head and rushed to him to grab his hands. 

"Danny! Danny, relax, it’s just me, it’s me, Sam." 

Danny calmed down, but his heart was still racing like he had just run a marathon. His skittish eyes landed on Tucker behind her and rested on the bloody bandage around his right arm. 

"What happened," he asked and Sam bit her lip, her face smeared with ashes and dirt. 

There was blood in her messy hair. 

"Tucker got shot by one of the agents. He continued to tell me he was fine, but he kept getting paler. We found you and Skulker, you..." she stopped and pushed a lose strand of hair behind her ear, something she only did when she was nervous, "we dragged you to an ally and you formed a portal. I told you to bring us somewhere they wouldn’t look for us and you sent us here. The energy you used must have knocked you out." 

Danny looked around and it took a minute for him to know where they were. 

"It’s the bootleg lair. The place Elliot died," he concluded and Sam nodded without looking him in the eye and continued to evade eye contact when he tried to catch hers. 

"What?" he asked, worried that more bad news was under way. 

"It’s nothing," she just said dismissively and made move to stand, but he grabbed her hand and held her in place. 

"Tell me. What's wrong?" 

She stared at him for a moment and then downcast her eyes, somewhat sorrowful. 

"You kept screaming," she whispered, "cried out about things, begged for it to stop, called for your mother, Jazz and...me." 

She drew a long breath, "but also him. Mostly him." 

Danny swallowed, didn't have to ask what 'him' she was implying. 

She removed his hand from her arm and returned to tend on Tucker's arm. Danny stared after her, feeling both angry at her for telling him this and sorry for her, for having been forced to see him like that. 

He grabbed his head with a lost expression and tried to walk the path of remembering and at the same time keeping his emotions at bay. The echo of sorrowful voice returned to him and he looked around to relocate the source of it. 

Suddenly stiffen. 

"Sam..." he suddenly asked with a low voice, "what time is it?" 

Sam send him a tired look, but lifted her arm to find her wristwatch nonetheless, "its four in the morning, why?" 

Danny felt ice cold dread run through his veins and it washed out everything else, leaving his mind full of hard white fear. 

"I have to go," he announced and jumped to his feet where he transformed, shaking his head as a rush of light headache almost made him fall back over. 

"What!? Are you crazy?" she exclaimed angry and rose as well, "Vlad is out there looking for us and so is Walker and his men! You can’t go out there!" 

"I have to find Kemberly," he replied sternly and formed a portal on the wall. 

“Danny!” she warned with a high-pitched voice and he turned half to her. 

She inhaled slowly and left out the air in a shaking breath, “if you leave us here and risk yourself because of her…then…” 

She clenched her teeth as well as her fists and send him a look of boundless hopelessness. 

“Then I will never take you back.” 

Danny returned her gaze and then broke the contact to look into his portal. Green light flooding clear and malicious in lazy swills, reminding him of the dreams that sometimes came to him at night and filled him with peace. 

Of a home he had never known, but always carried within himself. The green sphere that was his heart and core, the undead and immortal. 

All of him that wasn’t human. All of him that was Phantom. 

All of him that could never be with Sam. 

The last string of humanity broke behind him as fragile spider web. 

“I hope you’ll one day get over me,” he replied simply and walked through the portal.


	30. The fire of passion – and also burning apartments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> Kemberly had a suspecion of being huanted  
>  _Kemberly pursed her rosy lips, “well, I live in this apartment building. It’s pretty old, but it has a nice view and location. But strange fires have started to occur around. The police have no clue what’s causing it…my neighbors say it’s because the building is haunted._
> 
> So Danny investigate it at her place  
>  _Danny looked around, "does the arson attacks happen at day or nighttime?”_  
>  _“Both. But mostly around early morning and late night,” she retorted, “should I pay you for investigating, or can it wait ‘til when you’ve solved the case?”_  
>  _Two men interrupted them as they walked up the stairs. The elderly man leading pointed to the burned apartment, “that’s the place, sunny, get it fixed up will ya?”_  
>  _The worker just nodded and passed Kemberly and Danny to walk into the burned apartment, but not before taking his hat of for Kemberly._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And acted as her body guard  
>  _His searched stopped rather abruptly as the sound of commotion behind a draping caught his attention._  
>  _“ – listen, baby, try and level with me. I’m a star, I don’t do marriage and happy homes. It’s not like you would be able to handle me anyway.”_  
>  _“But, Kemberly –”_  
>  _“If you don’t let go I’ll have to call the bouncers.”_  
>  _Danny took that as his cue to assist and moved the heavy drape. Kemberly lighted up by the sight of him and the man behind her pulled back immediately._  
>  _“Is there a problem?” Danny asked and tried to weight the guy with his eyes. Clearly human and pretty skinny to, he couldn’t even look Danny in the eyes as he hid them behind a sixpence and unwashed hair. The man didn’t reply, but hurried to leave and slammed the backdoor behind him._  
>  _Danny guessed that was it and turned to her, “you okay? Did he hurt you or something?”_  
>  _“No,” she sighed and rubbed her arm, more cold than sore, “just ignore him. He’s just an admire and I’ve seen him before backstage – I think we even talked ones. He works with the light and other stuff around in the area, I think. He’s harmless, just…”_  
>  _She shook her head, not knowing what to say._
> 
> Danny promished her to return and protect her when they were done with Walker  
>  _“ **Danny!"** she asked into the phone, **"that was fast, where are you?”**_  
>  _Danny sighed in relief of hearing her voice, he had feared Walker would have found out about the missing page by now, “it’s best you don’t know in case Walker starts asking, "listen, we're almost done here, when do you get of work?"_  
>  _" **Around an hour from now,** " she replied lightly, " **but if you ask me nicely I could always make one of the girls cover for me and start our date early.** "_  
>  _"Then how about you meet me at the Pictures? See a movie or two. I'll be there in around five minutes."_  
>  _" **Sounds like a plan, Danny – I'll pack my stuff and swagger down there – you better be there, don't make a girl wait, you know.** "_
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hello people :D  
> i have to admit i got a bit emotional writing this  
> Maybe some of you have already figured out the who's ghost haunting Kemberly McLain is, maybe you haven't - anyway here's the next chapter  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, Kemberly McLain’s apartment, New York City, New York, USA_

Danny had never counted himself as a disillusioned person. 

Just optimistic. 

He had owned a little hope that he would find her at the Pictures, but his tired and confused head had first caught up with him at the steps of the closed entrance and realized that it had been closed for hours. 

With the ruin that was once Vice End behind him and the Pictures out of his mind, he rushed to the only other place he knew she would go. 

Her apartment. 

At first, he had believed it to be the light of dawn in the horizon. Red, gold and orange. Colors that usually promised a new day and warmth to all the things that may bath in the lifegiving sun’s presence. 

A sign of good faith. 

It was the sirens, huddling people at the street and sound of crackling fire, that finally killed the last hope in him. Looking at it in perspective, he should probably had turned invisible, instead of just flying up to the building in full view and entered without a word. 

In the light of the present, it would have changed a lot of things if he had just stayed focused and found it in him to search for more than just one person in the building. 

Surely thing would have looked different if he had brought out a couple of people from the burning building, instead of just flying in and then vanish from the open scene while the firemen saved lives. 

He could have done a lot of things differently. 

He could have saved himself a lot of trouble. He could have saved himself a lot of things. 

Danny would often think about this and then dismiss it all. Wishful thinking was just another means of regret and he had long since grown sick of regretting his choices in life. 

You can’t change the past and you can’t go think you would have acted differently in a situation, just because it would have been better or logical, because of how you think in the future. Cause that’s the thing. 

We don’t act in the past or future. We’re always in the now, you can only act on the present. 

And the present doesn’t stop for anyone. 

He found her in her bed. The fire had clearly started and spread from here, as this had been the first place for the firemen to break in the windows with their pumps, to flood the apartment with water from the red hydrants outside. 

Despite the water, soaked ashes and heat from the still burning neighboring apartments, there was a strange tranquility about her home. In this little vacuum of time, Danny found himself walking through the destroyed apartment and offerings glances to different details. 

The blackened sugar-bowl filled with melted dark goop. 

The fragile sticks of still smoking chairs, that had continued to stand upright around the collapse table, despite the odds of toppling by either fire or water. 

The combusted and web-looking surfaces of black frames, littering the floor along with their melted glass and ashes. 

A crisp skeleton of a curled-up figure on the ruins of a bed with no sheets left to cover her naked body. 

His breath left him by the cruel sight and he moved closer in awe. She seemed so small to him without the long hair, natural bodyfat and theatrical dresses. Only the bones and a blackened surface of burnet flesh remained and he was afraid to touch her. 

Afraid that she would crumble under his hands and turn to dust by the slights wind. 

Flakes vibrated from the scraps of the guitar she had curled around and it was then he closed his eyes and knew he had failed her. She hadn’t been asleep during the fire, she had been awake, scared and possible even known she was a lost cause. 

Having pulled the guitar to her like a last distraction from the flames and screamed into its sound-hole as the flames had ate up her loose hair. 

She had suffered. She had suffered because of him. 

He had failed the girl on the bed. 

_It’s gonna be my thing. My special sound._

As if a veil shielding him from reality suddenly had been ripped of his senses, Danny’s gagging reflexes came to life from the overwhelming smell and his eyes suddenly started to flow with tears. 

The smell of burned flesh, soaked wood and the fumes of melted electronics suddenly became too much for him and he hurried to leave the room. 

The room in which Kemberly McLain had died. 

Having already emptied most of his stomach back at the streets of _Vice End_ , Danny found himself dry heaving and kneeling on the ground of the building’s dirty back ally. 

Curled up next to old reeking dumpsters and boxes of long forgotten bottles as empty as his head. No functional thought would come to mind and no matter what he did, his breathing wouldn’t get back to normal. 

He knew he didn’t really have to breath as Phantom, but the urge was too strong to ignore and he could only imagine how his ghost-half was feeling right now if this was the state of his human side. 

A sound of rolling bottles made him startled enough to choke and he scrambled back to his feet. 

A young man came stumbling into the ally and dried his forehead like he had just made a run for his life. Two green bottles stuffed with an unknown liquor and fabric at the opening was clicking and clinking in his fist, hitting each other with every unsteady step he made. 

He seemed strangely familiar to Danny and he watched in silence from the shadow that hid him, as the unknown, yet well-known man pulled out a pack of matches and lit up the ally with a little clear flame. 

Danny blinked and rose the second the stranger tried getting the flame to catch the fabric of the first bottle. 

“It was you,” Danny said and the stranger jumped in fright and dropped the Molotov-cocktail on the ground, where it smashed and send the pungent smell of gasoline into the crisp air of the night. 

“There was never a ghost,” Danny continued with a faint voice and moved closer to the backing man, “just a human playing with fire.” 

The man didn’t reply and continued to back up and lit the last Molotov-cocktail at the same time. Watching Danny under the shadow of his sixpence. The same cap he had been wearing the day Danny came to take a look at Kemberly’s apartment. 

The man had been tipping it for her, before her neighbor had told him she was too expensive for someone like him. 

“You make money out of repairing the places that burns down,” Danny concluded and the man shook his head almost angry, no longer afraid of Danny even in his ghost form. 

“It’s not about the money. It’s about the cover. It was never about the money,” the man said indignant and looked down at the flame at the end of his match, “it’s about the beauty of it. Look at it…it’s so alive, so fierce. So beautiful.” 

“Is that why she had to die?” Danny asked and clenches his fists, walking steady without a hurry, knowing that the man would run out of space to retreat on when they got to the end of the ally. 

“Die? No, no, no,” the pyromania kept repeating like Danny’s question was to simple an explanation, “you don’t get it. She’s a flame – you know? Burning like a hydrogenic star and lighting up the places she goes. I tried to explain to her just how special she is behind stage, but she didn’t understand. Thought I was one of her mindless admires – but I’m so much more than that.” 

He smiled geniality at Danny, “I wanted to set her free. Free from that body that caged her flame. I wanted to help her, set her free. Now that I’ve started the fire in her, she will be free to burn. Like a wildfire!” 

“You’re very sick. You need help,” Danny replied with a shaking voice and tried to keep his anger down, even though a voice in the back of his mind kept screaming at him. _He’s evil! Evil! He killed him! Evil! Evil! EVIL! **HE KILLED KEMBERLY!!!**_

The man just shook his head and moved closer to the end wall of the ally, “I’m alright, I see everything clearly. I see the light, I saw her. My beautiful Kemberly. My smoldering ember. Her scream was the most –” 

“Shut up,” Danny whispered, didn’t want to hear it. The man just grinned like a child. 

“Like a thousand matches ignited at the same time. But with words.” 

“I said, shut up,” Danny repeated more insisting, the anger starting to show on his face. 

“She called out for this guy she met some days ago – like death, she left all earthly possessions and bound on this earth and became free of them. All of it burned away to reveal her true flame.” 

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Danny shouted and clasped his hands over his ears. 

The arsonist smiled and threw the ignited Molotov-cocktail at him. Danny’s green eyes widened in basic fear, knowledge of all the damage and pain a fire could inflict him racing through his mind like a virus. 

Then something else took over. 

Indifference. 

Green light formed around the flying bottle and made it stop in midair. Both of them stared at the halted bottle for the split-second it lasted, before Danny’s telekinesis send it back the same way it came. 

The green glass splintered before the man’s feet and drenched him in the flaming gasoline, sending it rolling over his body and shielding arms, as easy as wave crushing over a child by the beach. 

The many tongues of fire took color after the material they got hold of and mixed in a blinding light of red hot power. 

Phantom’s white hair and tanned skin lighted up in gold and orange, and Danny stared at the body of fire who ran around in panic. A blind search for water that wasn’t there. 

“The harbor is miles away,” Danny heard himself say and the strange calm of the warmth and shock of having unlocked a new power, made him as still as a statue and he transformed back to human without noticing. 

He didn’t notice a lot of things. 

Shadows of people ran past his eyes and he continued to stare without moving a muscle while the firemen threw a jacket over the burning body at the ground. Fighting to kill the fire and get the man rolled over to his back at the same time. 

The click of cuffs made Danny realized he had been tackled and locked on the ground. His glasses cracked and lying next to him. Red hair yelled at him and told him his rights, but Danny had only eyes for the man on the ground. 

A hand filled with blisters and smoked skin held the hand of one of the firemen, as the men worked as one to get the wounded up on a stretcher. 

The burned man on the stretcher suddenly started cramping and even though Danny didn’t really get any understanding sounds from the whole scenario, even he could understand that no human should make sounds like these. 

The hand in the Fireman’s clenched and made several blisters pop. Then, it relaxed and became still. The men became still, a white sheet pulled over the burned body. 

Danny, still lying down on the dirty cold ground with two policemen and chief Wes Weston telling him his rights, followed the stretcher roll its way out of the ally with his eyes. 

The black and blistered hand had fallen out to hang on the side of the stretcher and moved up and down in pace with the rolling. Almost waving, as in goodbye. 

Hadn’t Danny been cuffed, he would have waved back.

  


The time in-between arrest and imprisonment had been a surprisingly smooth and fast-forward affair. 

But if you didn’t put up a fight, a beating didn’t last that long either. Danny laid back on the cell mattress. Tried to recall the exact events that had occurred this last week while tracing the crack in the ceiling. 

Weston must have had a field day. Danny had been secured in a jail cell of the station, while Weston and his police officers gave press conference outside the building. The flashing light and sound of eager press folk leaking easily through to his cell through the little windows with bars. 

People had wanted to see him, but he hadn’t wanted to see them. 

People wanted to hear why he did it, why he’d burned and killed all those people. He told them he didn’t know. 

Sam had tried forcing a million-dollar attorney down on him. Danny had told them he would represent himself. 

The families and people of the man on the stretcher said they wanted him hanged. Danny agreed. 

The judge wanted him to confess his crimes. Danny lied and told him he’d done it all. 

Done it all and nothing less. 

They said he was a sensation, the hottest thing to read about and the most infamous of all. Danny hadn’t cared, he hadn’t really cared at all. 

He had tried avoiding all contact to the world outside the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, but either Sam had used her family fortunes to bribe the system, or Tucker had made a convincing case why they had the right to see him and have Danny forced into one of the talking booths by a prison guard. 

The bars between him and the two had really been to his advantage, but the guard by the door keeping him from leaving the room and them, hadn’t. 

“I’m taking my sentence and turn in the chair when it comes,” Danny had said without much compromise, having made up his mind, but that hadn’t sat well with none of them. 

“What are you talking about!?” Sam had gasped, “you’re not the one who did this, Danny. The attorney I hired said there was several witnesses that could prove that he was the one. You just defended yourself, that’s all!” 

“I’m taking my sentence and turn in the chair when it comes,” Danny repeated again, just as monotone and robotlike as before. 

Tucker shook his head and grabbed the bars, ignored the guard’s warnings, “do you hear youself!? You can’t just let them send you to the chair!? That’s wrong and you know it – just…” 

Tucker send the angry guard a looked and whispered, “just phase out tonight and we’ll all leave the city. We can start over somewhere else.” 

“I’m taking my sentence and turn in the chair –” 

“Danny, stop it!” Sam interrupted, “if you’re worrying about us, don’t – my parents won’t like it and neither will Tucker’s, but it’s our choice and we choose you.” 

“You killed that guy on accident – you can’t take his death on yourself like this, Danny!” 

“I’m taking my sentence and turn in the chair when it comes,” Danny just said and Sam seemed to have lost her last drop of patience. 

The guards had to drag her out as she yelled and cursed him for being a coward and leaving them like this. Danny knew she didn’t really meant it, she was just sad. 

Tucker had sighed and turned to him before the doors had been closed with lock and key behind him. 

“We’ll come back next week.” 

But they hadn’t. Danny hoped it was the system shutting them out and not the other way around. 

From the looks of the newspaper fronts to judge, something could seem that his case was followed by most of the east coast like a race and he guessed bribing would get harder and more expensive every second with everyone’s eyes on him. 

But of course, there would always be people that not even impossible prices or the part of the system still counting itself righteous could stop. Danny’s zombie like routine was intercoupled again, as the warden himself came to fetch him. 

“You have a visitor, Fonten.” 

Danny continued to stare at the crack in the ceiling without any means of moving freely and the man sighed before having two guards grab and drag him down the corridor if necessary. Danny was in a good mood today and decided to walk this time instead of having them drag him. 

He ignored the rows of cells on each side of him and the inmate’s calls, shouts of insults and jokes on his behalf. Danny winced when a wet sock was smacked against the side of his face and the guards ignored it and the stench of piss now running down Danny’s face. 

“See if that can cool your fire, Pyro-Dan!” the sock-throwing inmate crackled after him and several men laughed loudly. 

Danny knew he should be bothered, but really, he deserved it. It didn’t matter how childish or how much these men reminded him of the bullies of boarding school – Danny deserved it all. All their hate. All their prejudices. All their words. 

He deserved this fate, this place and these people. That was the fate of murders after all. 

He would survive it and on the other hand…he wouldn’t. But it was all as it should be, Danny knew that now. He had known it ever since he threw that burning bottle of gasoline. 

A strange, but welcoming white buzzing seemed to have filled his head and made him slow. It made all his emotion come to a halt and gave him a safe space to not think. 

And not thinking was a blessing. 

Thinking meant he would have to process what had happened in that ally and thinking meant he would have to face what it meant to him, his morals and his worldview – not just his understanding of himself as a person, but the future such action would play a part in. 

He had murdered another human being without a care. 

The little remains that was his waking state of mind had told him the only logical thing he could still find some heroism in was to take the blame. Take the little rightness in helping the arson’s family go free of blame and put their son to rest with dignity. 

Danny would deal with his own dignity by letting the system he had trusted handle him. 

People who killed intentional was called murders. Murders had to be punished and imprisoned. Danny had killed a man intentional. That made him a murder. Murders belonged in prison. Murders belonged in the chair. 

End of story. 

The white bussing lifted a bit when he recognized the person waiting for him in the chair behind the bars and the guards took his second of halt as a sign of resistance and pushed him forward with more power than necessary. 

Danny fell into the chair and the man behind the bars scowled at the guards. 

“That would be all, gentlemen,” Vlad said and nodded to the door, “I’ll like to speak with him in private.” 

The warden frowned annoyed, “you don’t have money enough to order us around to, Masters.” 

Vlad flashed a smirk and the three men froze as three duplicates possessed their bodies, making their eyes flash red for a second, before all of them smirked and went through the door. 

Closed it with lock and key, and left the two of them to themselves and nothing but themselves. 

Danny had watched the show without a change of expression of visible interest. It didn’t concern him anyway. None of his business. Nothing really mattered other than his way to the chair. 

Of doing the right thing. 

Vlad watched him for a second and pointed to his own eye with a calm voice, “did the guards do that to you?” 

Danny hadn’t been around a mirror for weeks, but the pain around his left eye was enough to tell even his dazed head, that he had gotten a black eye at some point during his stay behind bars. 

“No…I don’t know. I don’t really remember…” 

Vlad’s serious expression turned a notch darker and Danny could tell he was angry, as the man folded his hands on his lap, “well, I doubt that it was an inmate who cut your hair off.” 

Danny ran a hand through the stubs on his head and just shrugged. He wouldn’t need hair where he was going anyway. 

“Does it matter?” 

“It matters to me,” Vlad responded gravely and looked around the room, “this is to cold a place for you. With your need of extra heat, you will get a cold in here sooner or later. I’ll have extra blankets and pillows sent up to your cell, until we’ve faked your death trial.” 

“Faked?” Danny asked monotonously, but Vlad was already deep into his own talk of plans. 

“A duplicate should be convincing enough, no one would be able to spot the difference. I have the needed papers ready for your new identity – ack, just look at that uniform. Those stripes remind me of those ties Jack used to sport.” 

Danny blinked unmoved, “oh yeah, as always, he’s the source of all of your troubles.” 

“Don’t be so melodramatic, Daniel,” Vlad corrected lightly, “that’s so middle class.” 

“…I am middleclass.” 

“Not when we leave this prison, no you’re not. I have the new identity ready on papers for you here, I like us to run through some options and –” 

“I’m not leaving.” 

Vlad stopped at that and send him a cold look, “don’t be like that, Daniel.” 

“Like what?” he asked, curious to a mild distinct. 

“Stubborn for the sake of defying me. It’s not becoming of you as an adult and I won’t tolerate it under these circumstances. What other options is there? Wait for the electric chair?” 

“Yes,” Danny retorted in deep honesty. Meaning every word. 

Vlad looked as if he had slapped him. His eyes had widened slightly and his mouth turned a bit agape. It would have been funny if Danny hadn’t been so tired of it all. But even he had to admit it was a strange look on Vlad’s face. 

Not one you saw that often. Vlad’s eyes darted like he was scrutinizing Danny. Looking for any sign of lie or wavering in his eyes. 

Danny guessed the man was confused. He had always bragged about being able to read Danny like a book and even to this day, Danny hadn’t been able to hide his emotions from the man no matter how many hours he practiced in front of the mirror. 

When Vlad didn’t find any sign of dishonesty of Danny’s words he shook his head slowly. Voice low and laced with incredulous, “are you out of your _mind?_ ” 

Danny blinked slowly, not changing from his state of indifference, “aren’t we all?” 

Vlad looked as if he was pulled in two directions at once. 

Danny would have expected him to lose his temper by now and just pulled him out by the hair – wait…shirt then? – and the nerve ticking under his right eye showed that he wanted to, but the seated man seemed conflicted and remained in the chair. 

Danny tilted his head, what was he waiting for? 

Vlad was indeed in a war with himself. On one hand, Daniel was being sassy and stubborn with him again. The most logical thing to do would be simply teleporting them out of here and take the things as they came. 

The worst-case scenarios would be for them both having to leave the country and live out the scandal somewhere east and tropical. 

He had a last plan if everything else failed of leaving the city after Daniel trial anyhow – having his Dalv Masters’ reputation stained as the one that helped Daniel Fonten escape was just another thing he would have to take into account. 

But for some reason, something was holding him back. He couldn’t tell if it was the terrifying honesty in Daniel’s voice or the extreme apathy that seemed to vapor of him. 

Vlad had never seen his little badger like this before. 

There had been times in the beginning of their relationship when the boy would have walked around with a blank look in those eyes of his and turn in on himself, but Vlad had always been able to reach into that made-up shell and pull him out again. 

But this? 

“Daniel, I want you to listen to me and listen closely,” he enunciated low and sternly, not giving any room for interruption, “the man you killed behind Miss. McLain’s building had more than one hundred arson cases behind him, having run from state to state without being caught. He was a dangerous and maniac individual that would have meet his maker in the chair nevertheless. You have nothing to feel guilty about and no reason to trouble your conscious like this. You did the right thing and now Miss. McLain can rest in peace.” 

Danny had been staring at a loose flake of paint hanging from one of the bars, but now turned his eyes back to the man behind them. 

He sighed tiredly, “this isn’t about Kemberly, Vlad. It’s not about that man and it’s not about you and me either. I’m not going to the chair for any of you or any of that…I’m doing this because it’s the right thing. I did something horrible, the circumstances don’t matter. I know what I did and it’s time I learn to take responsibility for it.” 

_It’s time you learn to show some responsibility._

Vlad felt a light shiver run down his spine. Recognizing his own words in the young man’s mouth. 

“It’s because of that woman’s death, isn’t it?” he asked hopefully, a broken heart would be more explainable for this sort of behavior than an unstable mind. 

“Kemberly?” Danny asked, almost as if he had to remember who that was, “I guess it’s always hard losing a friend…even though she didn’t see me that way. I know she wanted more from me and I pretended to date her for show. Wanted to punish Sam for dumping me in order for me to come back begging on my knees. But I wasn’t thinking of her in the moment I did it. I just wanted to kill him. I wanted to hurt him. See him burn. And I did. Now I’m paying the price and helping his family get their peace by taking his crimes on me.” 

Vlad knew what it felt like to want someone dead, having dealt with a lot of people during his life and helped more than a few into an early exit. 

He couldn’t exactly see the downside of it, those people had either been a bother or enemy of his – taking their life was his right as a stronger individual and the climb to power and control of one’s own destiny required it from time to time. 

He had more than ones tried making Daniel see this, making him see things his way and leave that black and white worldview behind him along with childish innocence. 

The boy had always insisted on things being either good or evil, causing him a great deal of frustration, but he supposed that was part of Daniel’s charm. 

The way the young man was speaking now wasn’t charming. 

It was scaring him. 

“Daniel, I know we have our differences and fights during our time together and separated. I know you’re sad and to a distinct that’s only reasonable, taking your situation and upbringings into account. A lot of things changed after you stopped viewing me as a father –” 

“I never saw you as a father, Vlad,” Daniel interrupted a little harder than necessary, but it was somewhat a relief to hear some emotion in that voice of his. 

Anger was an outlet for pain and Danny surely needed some release for the whole affair. 

“Do you wanna know the sole reason I’ve never seen a father figure in you?” Daniel continued relentless, “it’s because I see you as a man. A father is someone you look up to, but you…I always looked directly at you. As a man, an image… and that was an image that scared me.” 

The young man shook his head sadly, “not because you’re powerful, dangerous and driven by selfish desires, but because it’s an image I fear to acknowledge in myself. It’s easy to be evil, Vlad. It’s easy to do what’s best for yourself and use your powers for selfish gain. It’s easy to become you…and that’s what scares me the most. I can’t look up to you, because you make me look within myself with fear. I want to be with you, Vlad. But I don’t want to _be_ you.” 

Tears had made those icy blue eyes shine with grief and Vlad felt his heart stop by the sound of Daniel’s raw confession. 

Vlad phased through the bars without hesitation and grabbed the young man’s shoulder, hoping that this crack in Daniel’s indifference could help him to make Daniel see reason and leave this place. 

Daniel's tears had proven to be a state of breakthrough for him in the past when he wanted to mold the boy and Vlad was more than willing to exploit it again. When Daniel cried he was most vulnerable. 

“You don’t have to, Daniel, I just want you to be with me!” 

Daniel hadn’t reacted to his burst through the bars or Vlad grabbing him, the lifeless expression returning like a veil between them. 

“What you want is nothing I can give you,” Daniel retorted calmly, a sole contrast to Vlad’s own intensity and eagerness to win this. 

“Of course, you can – and will. All I ever wanted was you! Can’t you see?” 

“No,” Daniel whispered, a tear running down his pale cheek, “what you wanted was a halfa. A copy of yourself – you didn’t love me, you loved the idea of me. Of me being your own extension and better version. You didn’t care about me or my feelings, my hopes or my dreams. You just broke me apart and molded me into whatever you wished. You wanted you, not me…” 

Vlad removed his hands like had been burned them. Ran a hand through his black colored hair to smoother the escaping strands back to neatness and hiding his unease in the doing. 

Missing his ponytail more than ever and suddenly feeling foolish and bare without his silver hair and goatee. The unease of this entire conversation was starting to bring unwanted feelings to the surface of his shaken mind and he wanted out. 

“I wanted what was best for us,” he started professional and adjusted his suit. 

“And I wanted the old Vlad,” the young man shrugged nonchalant, “but funny story – we can’t have things that doesn’t exist. I thought the caring Vlad was real and I kept telling myself he was right beneath the man fucking me into the mattress. The old Vlad didn’t try to change me, he didn’t punish me for talking back or making mistakes. Being me. That Vlad was everything I had ever wanted and you took him away from me. You ruined everything and I was stupid enough to separating those two personalities, when all there is to it is a man wearing a mask.” 

Vlad was taken back, never felt this violated or exposed before. Not because he believed any of the young man’s words to be the truth, but because it had hit a spot in him that didn’t liked to be seen right through. 

Vlad was the one to tell others the truth about themselves. The insightful one. The one in control and knowledge of other frailties, vices and weaknesses. 

The way Daniel look at him with those unreadable eyes made him feel exposed. Out where he couldn’t regain the grasp of the situation. Naked and vulnerable. 

“I never meant to hurt you,” Vlad whispered, lost at words. 

Daniel stood without a word and dusted himself of. His voice indifferent, but firm. 

“But you did and what’s done is done – and I’m done.” 

Vlad stared after the young man in the striped uniform and felt a flare of anger return to him. 

This wasn’t over. 

“We’ll continue this conversation when I return and you’ve had some time to sort out your mind,” Vlad stated businesslike and released the guards from his duplicates. 

Daniel turned his head a bit as the warden opened the door, clearly a bit dazed and trying to remember why there hadn’t been a guard in the room to begin with and why Masters was on the wrong side of the bars. 

“Do what you want to,” Daniel uttered softly and stepped through the metal door, “you always have.”


	31. Danny is feeling blue, but the jail is painting the town red tonight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> Maddie the cat before the fall of the castle  
>  _“I’m ready to leave England,” Danny replied and covered up his distress and tiredness from Vlad, as the old housekeeper walked up to them and presented a transportation box for the white Persian. Danny helped the unwilling cat into the box and waved as she was carried to the car._
> 
> Vlad took his revenge on Spectra for hurting Danny  
>  _She laughed hauntingly as she made him cry out in both mental and physical pain, "I'll promise I'll take good care of you, that bad man to Plasmius is never going to find you there."_  
>  _"Allow me to challenge that," Vlad growled and grabbed Spectra by the neck, "you seem to like causing others a great deal of pain, Mrs. Spectra, allow me to help you find your peace now that your services won't be need anymore," he drawled darkly and send Danny a smirk, "the Unworld is the land of misery after all, and I’ll make you the queen of it."_  
>  _Danny closed his eyes as Vlad teleported away with the screaming Penelope Spectra and sobbed brokenhearted in his own paralyzed state._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Danny took a revenge of his own for Kemberly's death  
>  _“You’re very sick. You need help,” Danny replied with a shaking voice and tried to keep his anger down, even though a voice in the back of his mind kept screaming at him. **He’s evil! Evil! He killed him! Evil! Evil! EVIL! HE KILLED KEMBERLY!!!**_  
>  _The man just shook his head and moved closer to the end wall of the ally, “I’m alright, I see everything clearly. I see the light, I saw her. My beautiful Kemberly. My smoldering ember. Her scream was the most –”_  
>  _“I SAID SHUT UP!” Danny shouted and clasped his hands over his ears. The arsonist smiled and threw the ignited Molotov-cocktail at him. Danny’s green eyes widened in basic fear, knowledge of all the damage and pain a fire could inflict him racing through his mind like a virus._  
>  _Then something else took over._  
>  _Indifference._  
>  _Green light formed around the flying bottle and made it stop in midair. Both of them stared at the halted bottle for the split-second it lasted, before Danny’s telekinesis send it back the same way it came. The green glass splintered before the man’s feet and drenched him in the flaming gasoline, sending it rolling over his body and shielding arms, as easy as wave crushing over a child by the beach. The many tongues of fire took color after the material they got hold of and mixed in a blinding light of red hot power._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Welcome back you wonderful people :D  
> I have received more comments and feedback than I will never deserve and I can't thank you enough (ﾉ⊙ヮ⊙)ﾉ  
> Hope you all had a nice halloween - mine was the best  
> In this chapter Danny will sing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWgLt8X_nXs  
> and just to clarify - someone is going to call Vlad Danny's "Daddy" and even though it will one day become the term "sugar Daddy" as we know it today, back in the 20's a "Daddy" was just a term for a boyfriend a bit older than you - but of course back then young girls found older men to take care of them to, so he could also be way older than her. But over all it wasn't as frowned upon as it is today  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA_

Nichols felt sick. 

He blamed it on the coffee, but knew deep down that by blaming the coffee, he would be blaming Janice for his weak stomach. Which would be easy, but not very nice. 

Nichols believed himself to be nice at times. Of course, you couldn’t always be a pleasant person during work or while dealing with criminals, but he could be good company at the office. 

The younger officers often liked to hang around him and he knew he had that whole silver-back alpha thing around him. 

Saw him as an old ore-mine of experience the newbies like to learn a couple of tricks from and a tough nail the general staff liked to have around when things got out of hand and they needed someone familiar with the right procedures. 

Even though his retirement was just around the corner and threatened in the horizon, he had a faint hope that the higher-ups would realize their need for him and allow him to continue working. Nichols couldn’t imagine himself as anything other than an officer. 

He had always been a cop, always wanted to become one. It was in his blood and family, not being a cop seemed almost like taboo. He guessed that’s why he had such a hard time accepting that his son wanted to be an artist. 

Nichols hid his face in his hand. The fight with his wife earlier before work had been centered about the question of their son’s future. 

He had insisted on the boy going to the police school like his old man and stop the nonsense about paint and artwork. Having called it unrealistic and solid as a pipe-dream. 

Gwen had taken Rick’s side as always and told him that he couldn’t control everything. Rick had better chances of living out his dream if they paid the extra money for art school and taking extra shifts at the station would be worth it. 

That not everyone had to be an officer. 

Looking back at it now, Nichols felt ashamed. 

Who was he to decide for his son? Who was he to take control of Rick’s life like he owned the kid? 

He sent the closed interrogation room a tired glance and moved to look through the one-way mirror to see what the immortal was doing. 

Danny hadn’t moved an inch from his seat and Nichols wondered briefly about whenever Danny even needed food and water to survive. If he didn’t need breathing while in ghost form, did the same thing go for liquor and nourishment? 

For his inner eye, he suddenly imagined Danny years into the future. Still young and fresh, but covered with dust and mold. The station a ruin around him if even there. 

Danny wouldn’t have moved an inch, untouched and eternal as a titanium statue, while all around him had aged for millions of years. A living statue in a world of eternal change and – 

The illusion was broken when Danny sneezed. 

The image of a still statue shattered and the living breathing twenty-year-old-something revealed underneath. Danny dried his nose with his sleeve and send the glass a curious look. 

For a second Nichols thought he had been spotted and the boy possessed some sort of power that made him able to see through one-way mirrors, but then Danny simply bared his teeth to see if there was any food caught in them, adjusted his narwhale tooth necklace and tried ruffling his hair to look less wild. 

Which turned out to be impossible. 

Nichols chuckled a little by the sight of the young man’s fight with his hair. Danny soon gave up one the idea of gaining control of his inky tresses and leaned back in the chair, rocked it a couple of times. Looking like a bored-out teen. 

The sight had Nichols smiling and his thoughts went to his son Rick. He would make things right when he got back home. He would take those extra shifts. 

“I’m so sorry, I got caught in the traffic!” Janice apologized hectic as she burst through the station’s doors and rushed up to him. 

She handed him the rain-soaked bags of junk food and Nichols could already tell by the smell that it had gone close to cold. By the looks of the little woman’s guilty expression, she knew so to. 

“I’m sorry,” she repeated just as pathetic as the first time and began to rant about how she couldn’t get delivery and then forgot where she put her keys and then where she’d parked her car, not to forget people kept cutting her off in traffic – 

“Thank you, Janice.” 

She stared at him for more than was appropriate and he took the bags and cardboard tray with the soda, before her hands could get tired out. He sent her a smile he hoped wasn’t creepy at all and she returned it hesitantly with an awkward smile of her own. 

“You…you’re welcome,” she retorted and adjusted her thick glasses before returning to her desk and laptop. 

Nichols made it a future resolution to talk to the mouse-woman at least ones a week. Heavens knew she needed a friend and he and the others hadn’t been the best at letting her in on the station’s social sphere. 

One of the women could help her a great deal just by suggesting putting her hair down and wear something else than grey. That would surely make an improvement. 

Danny turned around in his seat as Nichols returned to the room and a boyish grin bloomed on his face by the sight of food. 

“Nice, Nasty Burgers. _Nasty is one letter away from Tasty_ – open it up, I’m starving over here!” 

Nichols scoffed softly by the young man’s eagerness to stuff himself with junk food and the earlier image of the unmoving statue in the ruins of the unknown future fell apart easily. 

Danny wasn’t inhuman, he needed and appreciated greasy food like anyone else. 

“Guess they didn’t serve burgers in prison, huh?” Nichols joked and began on his lukewarm burger with somewhat table manners, while Danny just wolfed his down without a care. 

“Burgers? Nah, I don’t even think burgers was invented at that time – if they were I never saw one. I got my first case of real American junk food the 13. April of 1985. It was a Nasty Burger meal of all things. But the bun had a hole in the middle like a doughnut back then. They changed it to a solid bun some years later. The 80’s was weird, man. They even had a period of purple ketchup.” 

“Sounds like a lawless wasteland,” Nichols chuckled, recalling some old memories of his own years as a child in that time, “looks like you got out of prison, else you wouldn’t have been able to try one.” 

Danny slurped some of his cola and shrugged, “well obviously, had I taking my time in the chair we wouldn’t be here in the first place, now would we? But yeah, story time – prison was absolute shit and the other inmates even shittier. I’m not going back there, just so we’re clear.” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Nichols replied and added some ketchup to his burger, “Vlad returned to try talking you out of it?” 

“Yeah…” 

Danny bit into the burger to hide his unease. Vlad had tried reason with him and even threatened him when his patience dried up. Danny hadn’t really cared at that time and told him to do as he wanted. 

Vlad had been furious and even more angry that Danny refused to put up a fight or even try to resist him, when he threatened to just teleport him out of there. 

_“We’re not humans, Daniel! We don’t live by man-made laws and I won’t see you killed by one either! You don’t owe them or the system anything!”_

_“It’s a human world, Vlad. You and I live in it, exist because of it. It doesn’t matter how little you think we owe a world like this, I’ve made up my mind and I’m going to pay the price of my actions…if you have just the slightest of conscience left, you should to.”_

_Danny ignored the man’s losing temper and settled his eyes on the small glimpse of silvery roots in Vlad’s colored hair. Wondered if Vlad had neglected his own appearance for the sake of coming here and working on Danny’s case._

_The color reminded him of a certain feline._

_“Vlad…how did Maddie survive the fall of the castle?”_

_Vlad stopped his angry rant to listen to Danny’s sudden words and blinked surprised by the odd question._

_“Maddie? Well…I found her after I woke from the ruins. She had been caught in the car. The transportation-box had protecting her from the fallen bricks and the beam that had crushed half the car.”_

_The man sat back down and pinched the bridge of his nose, voice irritated to no end, “why are you asking me this, Daniel?”_

_Danny shrugged, “one less mystery in the world, you know. One more secret to take with me to the grave. Promise me you take good care of her.”_

_“I’ve just saved your life from Walker and his goons,” Vlad sneered and stood to walk his anger off before he took it out of him._

_Danny heard the knock on the metal door and stood as the warden opened the lock and signaled to him that time was up._

_“I’ll return next Tuesday,” Vlad sighed and watched Danny walk for the door._

_The young man sent him a last look before leaving._

_He knew Vlad hadn’t worked his way beneath Walker’s skin, just to betray him in order to save Danny – Vlad always had hidden motifs and surely, he had wanted to ruin Walker long before Danny started working for the gangster…_

_But there was still one thing Danny knew Vlad had done solely for the sake of caring._

_“Thank you,” Danny retorted sincerely, “for saving me from Spectra.”_

_Vlad has just stared after him, lost at words. Still not ready to accept the empty reality that was this shadow of his little badger – but…_

_Danny had thanked him…_

Danny swallowed and helped himself to some more soda to get the old taste of concrete dust out of his mouth. He put up a more suitable face for the sake of the old cop. 

“But needless to say, he couldn’t convince me of dropping my suicidal plans and will to take a chance with the electric chair. I was that kind of guy,” Danny laughed with black humor, “no one likes that kind of loony-case. Not even criminals. I had a hard time fitting in, I’m afraid.” 

“They beat you up?” Nichols asked worried and Danny put up a weak smile. 

“Yeah, most of the time, but it stopped after Vlad bribed the guards to keep an eye on me, but one of the guards had lost family because of one of those fires, so instead of inmates beating me up, you had police brutality to keep me from getting rid of the charming bruises.” 

“Don’t tell me you took it without a fight,” the old man said irritated and Danny hummed. 

“I told myself I deserved it. I welcomed it even, made it easier for me to believe I was guilty if even the guards hated me to the core. It helped me remain in the role as a criminal. It changed a bit when they inmates found out there was more between me and Vlad than just friends.” 

Nichols frowned, “they took advantage of you?” 

Danny shook his head, “no, but their attempts made me wake up a bit. Made me fall back into anger and regain some of that will to fight I thought I had lost. The accusations of starting fires I could take. But them punishing me for being gay? That wasn’t any of their business. That detail wasn’t part of my reasons for being punished. It had nothing to do with me murdering that guy.” 

Danny crumbled the greasy paper of his first burger and continued on to the next with some slight brutality and bit into it harder than necessary, “it was because of that I meet Frederich – or ‘Freakshow’ as he later insisted on being called. Talking about being edgy of purpose.” 

“One of the guards?” 

“No, an inmate. I helped him out and he repaid me by helping me in return…it sounds like something good when I say it like that actually.” 

“What do you mean?” Nichols asked confused and Danny smiled bitterly. 

“Freakshow was a strange guy and in a way, I actually think he liked me in his own twisted way. To this date, I still can’t believe how small the odds of us meeting in that prison was. Funny how fait seems to pop in when you don’t go look for her. Life's a very funny proposition after all...”

   
 

 _Year 1927, the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, New York, USA_

_**“Life's a very funny proposition after all..."** _

****

   
 

The crack in the ceiling returned Danny’s empty gaze and his pale hand went to the spot above his heart where the key from Ghost Writer rested in his ghost-form. 

If he imagined it enough, he could even tell himself he could feel the shape of it. Funny how knowing you had your days numbered, could suddenly remind you of all the things you wanted the answer to. 

What did the key open? 

Was Jazz happy? 

Did Youngblood still haunt Mrs. Jones’ little town house? 

Danny turned over to his side and sighed. Knew that these questions were useless. He would never get to know anyway and they had only become important because of the prospects of never having them answered. 

It was as simple as that. Just another urge he had to ignore. 

He didn’t turn as steps entered his cell and he kept staring into the wall with a scowl. More than able to recognize the heavy sets of feet and knowing the trouble that followed in their steps. 

“Eh, Pyro-Dan,” the leader of the inmates greeted jeering and took a seat at the opposite bunk, “you never gave me an answer on my offer the other day. It was a pretty generous offer, I’ll say.” 

“Rude to ignore,” his second in command echoed and Danny’s scowl deepened. 

“Fuck off,” he snorted and continued to ignore them openly. 

The leader hummed and by the sound, scratched his blond beard, “we heard about your little discussion with your _Daddy_ yesterday. Breakups sucks, am I right?” 

The other two snickered and Danny sighed annoyed, “I’m not going to suck you dickheads off and I’ll beat you up the same way as that Dunkin guy, if you don’t leave me alone now.” 

“Aw, come one, baby-boy. A little fun between friends has never killed anyone, it’s not like you don’t know how and we’ll be good to you – here.” 

Small items landed on his back and mattress, and Danny eyed one of the candy bars that had deflected the wall and landed near his face. A pack of cheap cigarettes was added to the candy. 

Rollups was hard to come by in prison and even if you didn’t smoke, you would be an idiot not to accept one for the sake of trading it for something else later. 

Danny didn’t care about that, but he had his suspensions about the prison’s cook spitting in his food and tried to eat what he could come by outside the cafeteria. 

But he wasn’t going to be someone’s bitch for a pack of _Camels_. 

“How do ya like that, _little badger_.” 

Danny clenched his teeth to the painful and curled in on himself in suppressed anger. The men laughed and left him to seethe in his degradation. The humiliation and misuse of the old nickname making him see red. 

He threw the candy bars across the cell and stood up to walk his wrath away. Clear his head a bit. 

The outdoor was closed land to him with all that snow and his thin uniform. He could go to the cafeteria to hang, but the tables seemed to have to unspoken rules of possession to them, making them the social hangouts of the different races and groups. 

Outside of meals the cafeteria was a statement where the inmates would sit around in groups and glare at anyone crazy enough to challenge them for a seat to close to their distinct territories. 

Danny only had a chance of a seat during meal times and didn’t feel like nagging any of the blacks, Italians or whites today. Or any day – they all had the astonish thing in comment that they hated openly homosexuals and guess who their sole spit target was? 

He shook his head solemnly and continued to walk the cold and grey corridors, hoping to find a place to rest his tired head without disturbance. 

He turned before getting to close to the baths, having learned the hard way that it was better to stink than gather with the rest of the men for a shower. Or go there alone, really. 

Danny had beaten up a sleazy guy named Dunkin in there, teaching the rest of the place he didn’t take kindly to being surprised under the showers. 

The only thing that had kept him from going to the Shu was Vlad’s interference, but really Danny didn’t have to go to a closed dark cell without a window or other inmates around to feel isolated. 

He reminded himself that he deserved it, bowed his head and continued to walk. Walk, walk, walk.

 

_“Then, the fates blow rather breezy; they quite upset a plan  
and he'll cry 'this life's a burden, hard to bear.'”_

 

Danny continued to sing the song to himself quietly, occupying his head by recalling the lyrics and walked in pace with the words. Keeping himself busy.

 

_“We're born to die, but don't know why or what it's all about.  
The more we try to learn, the less we know.”_

 

His feet led him to the stair to the laundry area and Danny’s hopes of sleeping an hour or two below a couple of sheets made him speed up a bit. Hiding under laundry was always an option when you wanted to kill time.

 

_“Life's a very funny proposition, you can bet.  
And no one's ever solved the problem properly as yet.”_

 

The sudden sound of commotion and hushed voices of angry men made Danny come to a halt on the stair and he made a move to return upstairs. Not wanting to get caught up in a fight that wasn’t his.

 

_“Battles exciting, fates we're fighting until the curtains fall.  
Life's a very funny proposition after all.”_

 

“NO please! Not the face!” a man begged desperately and made Danny froze. 

The old call for help pulling at him and remind him of duty. The yells continued and Danny took another step up. 

“Just let it go, Fenton,” he whispered sternly and gripped the railing hard enough to make his knuckles turn white. 

A groan of pain was the last straw for him and Danny hurried down the stair and burst open the door. 

His three tormentors looked up from the ring they had formed around a down lying inmate and the blond leader smirked at the sight of Danny. 

“Dan-my-man,” he greeted ever so charming and remind Danny of his old fellow boarding’s school classmate Dash Baxter’s arrogant smirk, “come to join the party? Come on, have a cigarette with me and the boys.” 

“Let him go,” Danny demanded coldly and took a fighting stance. The man on the ground was still clenching his stomach and bruised arms, but looked up at him with hopeful eyes. 

“Help me,” he called out weakly and was kicked by the nearest of the man, “shut up, you rat!” 

“Walk away or I’ll make you regret it,” Danny warned darkly and clenched his fists. 

Going ghost would be a danger to his identity, but over the years he had found the way to pull extra strength from his ghost-form into his human-half. 

Even though he had the muscles to show and a build for a lithe fighter, the three men looked just as experienced and something about their grins told Danny they had hidden weapons on them. 

His glare deepened when they spread out instead of walking away. Danny eyed them to see which one would move first and his ghostly reflexes saved him from the flying fist coming unseen from the right. 

Danny grabbed it and flung the man over his shoulder, sending the next back with a side kick and dodged the homemade knife aiming for his face. 

The three men was clearly used to fight in a group and tried locking him in a corner, but Danny hadn’t been a defender of humans against powerful ghosts for nothing and soon had them at their toes. 

The blond wailed when Danny broke his wrist with a loud snap and pushed him back into the other two. Making them all fall to the floor. 

“I said, _walk away,_ ” Danny repeated with a growl and the man hurried to scrambled out of the laundry room, sending him glares that promised revenge in the near future. 

Danny guessed he would have to keep an invisible duplicate to guard his sleep from now one. 

He turned back around and reached a hand down to the wounded man with a gentler voice, “you okay, man? Anything broken?” 

“Oh no, the most critical about my situation would be my case of anemic,” the man assured lightly and winced as he got back on his bare feet. 

“They took your shoes?” Danny asked surprised and the pale man send him a bitter smile. 

“As payment. I didn’t get the extra food from the kitchen as they demanded, so my shoes and a healthy beating it was – well, until you showed up like my knight in shiny armor and saved my skin that is. Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome,” Danny replied and felt a sudden warm by the genially attitude this man was showing him. 

Haven’t realized just how much a simple kindly gesture could mean in a place like this. The man was strange to the eye, though. Thin as a scarecrow and with a nose as sharp as a raven’s beak. 

The man seemed almost comical, if it hadn’t been for the incredible dark eyes deep in his round head and the dramatical dark eyebrows. Like everyone else, he was without any significant hair, but the egg-like pate might suggest that the man hadn’t sported any hair to begin with. 

Having seen the movie _Nosferatu_ with Sam, Danny could almost believe the guy to be a vampire if he hadn’t just witnessed the man being beaten to a pulp by humans. 

“I believe you go by the name Dan?” the man continued friendly and Danny snapped out of his observation. 

Realizing just how rude it was to judge someone by their appearance like that. 

“Sure.” 

“Well nice to make your acquaintance then, my friend. I’m Frederich Isak Showenhower,” he said and bowed to Danny like a showman on stage. 

Danny suspected that the man had been in the showbiz before prison and nodded in return, “you to – any nickname to make my life easier?” 

The pale man chuckled charmingly, “certainly, I go by the name Freakshow among friends.” 

“Strange, but I’ll take it,” Danny said and went to leave. 

He stopped almost absently as Freakshow gave him a hurt look, to miserable and pathetic to resist. Danny really didn’t want to do this, but an old urge made him anyway and he sighed. 

“…wanna walk the halls, Freakshow? Two men gets rarely beaten than one.” 

Freakshow nodded eagerly and hurried to follow him. 

“Yes, lets stride the halls, what clever fella you are, Dan.”

   
 

Danny spend the next waking moments in the man’s company. 

Allowed himself to forget where he was and why, as he listened to the man’s colorful story of his life before prison and position as a ringmaster of a circus. 

Danny somewhat welcomed the company and even though he had the suspicion Freakshow was only sticking to him like gum because of the protection he promised, Danny couldn’t really care. 

If the man wanted to use him as a shield from the other inmates, he couldn’t really care. He was using Freakshow as a distraction from his miserably life anyway – they could use each other in sweet symbiose. 

Nothing wrong with that. 

The only thing that didn’t really set right with Danny was the many deals and favors Freakshow liked to do with different inmates. 

Danny wasn’t going to be the one lecturing about the errors of smuggling stuff into prison – not his business, none of his concern – but the amount of problems and inmates wanting to beat them up was starting to annoy Danny a great deal. 

Especial because Freakshow would jump behind Danny evetime and daring them to take their chances with the him. 

Freakshow constantly risking himself like that made Danny’s anger turn to curiosity when Freakshow after a week like this decided Danny could be trusted with more than just his safety. 

It was after a deal with one of the guards that Danny returned to Freakshow’s cell and handed him the little box he had received for him. 

“Can you keep a secret?” Freakshow asked cunningly and Danny took a seat next to him on the bunk. 

“Just open it, man,” Danny replied in tired sarcasm, “the suspense has been killing me all the way here.” 

Freakshow smirked and unwrapped the paper around the little box. Danny peaked into it. Not knowing what he had expected, but the little red shards of glass hadn’t been one of them. 

His confusion only grew, as Freakshow pulled a pillowcase out from under the bunk and revealed its content to be more shards of the same type of glass shards. 

“You’re making jewelry or something?” Danny asked, tried imaging the purpose of the different seized pieces. Not much coming to mind. 

“Not quite,” the pale man drawled charismatic and began comparing the pieces to one another with trained eyes, “it’s a puzzle, you see. All of these shards matching together into one single ball of beauty and with a little time and patience it will become whole again.” 

Danny scratched his stubbed neck, sensing he was beginning to tread some serious freakish territory here. The smaller man ignored his skepticism and began the work of assemble the pieces with a thick glue Danny had stolen from the prison’s toolshed. 

Without anything better to do Danny sat down next to him and began sorting out the pieces to help scale this ball they we’re building. 

It was almost lockdown when the ball had finally begun to take form and Freakshow’s eager to finish it made him work faster in the sparse light. 

“I’ll be taking in for visiting around noon tomorrow,” Danny explained as he had done a few times before, to give the man a heads-up of when he would be without a bodyguard and handed the man a larger piece with glue on it, “I’ll be back as soon as I can, but expect me to be out for an hour or something.” 

“Hmm, let me guess, it’s that gentleman of yours?” Freakshow asked for the sake of conversation, already knowing the rumors about the young man and his weekly visitation. 

Danny glued to pieced together and handed them to him, “probably, he’s the only one that wants to pay that much for a visit. You ever get visitors?” 

Freakshow shook his head, fully concentrated on his work and noticeable close to have it finished. 

“I’m afraid not, Dan. My family and I haven’t talked for years and the creators I ones held dear have been scattered and most of them possible hunted down.” 

Danny rose an eyebrow, but guessed the guy was just being theatrical as always. You had to take his words with a grain of salt most of the time. Danny didn’t really care anyway, he had just asked out of politeness. 

“Uhm okay…listen it’s almost lockdown and I think I’m heading back to my cell to get some sleep – you’ll be better of working in daylight anyway.” 

Freakshow didn’t seem to have listened to a word he’d said, eyes locked on the ball and working like crazy with the eager like a runner at a race. Danny shrugged and rose to stretch his leg and leave the cell. 

“At last!” Freakshow suddenly yelled in triumph and lifted the now finish ball in the air. Danny stared at it with a weak smile. 

“Nice, now go to bed – I think you scared the pants of the guys next door –” 

“Come to me my minions!” Freakshow bellowed dramatical and held the ball before him with dark glee. Danny was going to tell him to take a chill-pill and lay down, when the ball suddenly began to glow. 

A red light spread from its center and lighted up the cell in an eerie glow. 

“Come join the dark side,” the ringmaster whispered mesmerizing and Danny found that he couldn’t look away from the light. 

The swilling streams of red ecto-energy erasing all thoughts and emotions down to one single thing. 

Darkness. 

“Join the dark side,” Danny repeated slowly, eyes filled with the crystal’s glow and making him a swaying body before the other man. 

Freakshow lifted a surprised eyebrow in return and looked from the ball to the hypnotized man. 

“Hmm, how curious,” he whispered and lifted the ball before Danny’s blank face, “show me your true form, minion.” 

Two white rings formed around Danny’s midsection and revealed Phantom to the gasping ringmaster. His shock soon changing into an impossible wide grin. 

The sudden sound of the jailers calling to lockdown sounded down the hall, but none of the two could be bothered. 

Freakshow laughed hauntingly and began leading down the hall, “and I thought it would be hard finding a ghost near this prison, how foolish of me. I’ve been hanging around one for weeks!” 

“You two, get back to your cells,” one of the guards suddenly commanded and walked over to them with a frown. 

By seeing Danny’s black battle suit and the glowing crystal ball in Freakshow’s hand, the guard’s frown deepened and he pulled his baton threatening. 

“You two, down on the floor, hand over your heads – now!” 

Freakshow smirked and pointed to the guard with eyes on Danny, “what are you stalling for, you dolt? Kill him!” 

The red glow in Phantom’s eyes centered and colored his green irises like blood. An animalistic grin scorching his face. The guard backed away, frightened by the ghost’s evil expression and dropped the baton to pull his flute instead. 

Phantom shot forwards and grabbed the whistling guard’s face with a hand. The man’s eyes widened in fear as the hand lighted up against his face. The ecto-blast send the man’s face spreading across the backwalls and the headless body slid down to the floor. 

Phantom turned around to meet the backup rushing to help and the guards positioned themselves to surround both ghost and ringmaster with drawn guns. 

“Oh please,” Phantom drawled arrogant and turned both him and Freakshow intangible. 

The shots flew right through them and hit the opposite guards instead. The hall filled with the scream of the wounded and Freakshow took in the show of his new ghost killing the survivors without mercy. 

“Very good, Dan,” he grinned and patted the ghost on the white hair, “seems to me you will prove useful to me outside this dump as well.” 

Dan smirked by that, but a sudden rush of confusion made him cover his red eyes and he reopened them to reveal green instead. 

Danny shook his head in confusion and suddenly smelled the iron. He stared down at his blood covered hands in growing confusion and lifted his shaking head to watch the newly painted walls around him in horror. 

“…n-no…” 

All that could leave his lips was a shaking line of gasps and Freakshow sensed something was wrong. 

“What's that?” he asked surprised, “was that…was that free will!?” 

Danny turned to him with wide eyes and lifted a shaking hand in protest as Freakshow lifted his crystal ball with a shouting command, “obey me, minion!” 

The green eyes were replaced with red and the pleading expression was switched with one of dark confidence. Now back in control, Freakshow planned out his next move and was lifted into the air by Phantom. 

“Now get me out of here and lead me to the train station. We have a train to catch – and when I say catch, I mean steal.” 

Phantom phased them both out and shoot up and into the free night sky to set the needed course. More unfortunate ghosts around the city looked up to see the red light and joined the Ringmaster’s parade like mindless drones. 

The fronts of the newspapers of New York and region was cleared the next morning for one single headline alone. 

**_‘Danny Fonton, arsonist and ghost-medium, has escaped prison!’_ **


	32. They loved, they lost…and they finally left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Somthing happened to Danny the night he killed the arsonist  
>  _“I SAID SHUT UP!” Danny shouted and clasped his hands over his ears. The arsonist smiled and threw the ignited Molotov-cocktail at him. Danny’s green eyes widened in basic fear. Then something else took over._  
>  _Indifference._
> 
> Vlad tried to snap him out of it and failed  
>  _"I've always seen you as a man, an image… and that was an image that scared me.”_  
>  _Danny shook his head sadly, “not because you’re powerful, dangerous and driven by selfish desires, but because it’s an image I fear to acknowledge in myself. It’s easy to be evil, Vlad. It’s easy to do what’s best for yourself and use your powers for selfish gain. It’s easy to become you…and that’s what scares me the most. I can’t look up to you, because you make me look within myself with fear. I want to be with you, Vlad. But I don’t want to **be** you.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Then someone else snapped Danny  
>  _“Come to me my minions!” Freakshow bellowed dramatical and held the ball before him with dark glee. Danny was going to tell him to take a chill-pill and lay down, when the ball suddenly began to glow._  
>  _“Join the dark side,” Danny repeated slowly, eyes filled with the crystal’s glow and making him a swaying body before the other man._  
>  _Freakshow lifted a surprised eyebrow in return and looked from the ball to the hypnotized man._  
>  _“Hmm, how curious,” he whispered and lifted the ball before Danny’s blank face, “show me your true form, minion.”_  
>  _Two white rings formed around Danny’s midsection and revealed Phantom to the gasping ringmaster. His shock soon changing into an impossible wide grin._  
>  _“You two, down on the floor, hand over your heads – now!”_  
>  _Freakshow smirked and pointed to the guard with eyes on Danny, “what are you stalling for, you dolt? Kill him!”_  
>  _The red glow in Phantom’s eyes centered and colored his green irises like blood. An animalistic grin scorching his face. The guard backed away, frightened by the ghost’s evil expression and dropped the baton to pull his flute instead. Phantom shot forwards and grabbed the whistling guard’s face with a hand. The man’s eyes widened in fear as the hand lighted up against his face. The ecto-blast send the man’s face spreading across the backwalls and the headless body slid down to the floor._  
>  _“Very good, Dan,” he grinned and patted the ghost on the white hair, “seems to me you will prove useful to me outside this dump as well.”_  
>  _Dan smirked by that, but a sudden rush of confusion made him cover his red eyes and he reopened them to reveal green instead. Danny shook his head in confusion and suddenly smelled the iron. He stared down at his blood covered hands in growing confusion and lifted his shaking head to watch the newly painted walls around him in horror._  
>  _“…n-no…”_  
>  _All that could leave his lips was a shaking line of gasps and Freakshow sensed something was wrong._  
>  _“What's that?” he asked surprised, “was that…was that free will!?”_  
>  _Danny turned to him with wide eyes and lifted a shaking hand in protest as Freakshow lifted his crystal ball with a shouting command, “obey me, minion!”_  
>  _The green eyes were replaced with red and the pleading expression was switched with one of dark confidence. Now back in control, Freakshow planned out his next move and was lifted into the air by Phantom._  
>  _“Now get me out of here and lead me to the train station. We have a train to catch – and when I say catch, I mean steal.”_  
>  _Phantom phased them both out and shoot up and into the free night sky to set the needed course. More unfortunate ghosts around the city looked up to see the red light and joined the Ringmaster’s parade like mindless drones._  
>  _The fronts of the newspapers of New York and region was cleared the next morning for one single headline alone._  
>  _ **‘Danny Fonton, arsonist and ghost-medium, has escaped prison!’**_
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey people :D  
> Hope ya ready for yet another horrible chapter of: "how much can we hurt Danny Phantom?"!  
> In this chapter the radio will play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7j8wa9sWOE  
> Hope you're all still up for this fic and its rotten content  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 1927, the Masters mansion on East Egg, New York, USA_

The ecto-signature reached Vlad in the office and he continued to stare out the wide window as Miss. Manson and Mr. Foley was thrown on the carpet behind him. 

Both protesting by the hard handling and complaining about being brought here in the first place. 

Vlad didn’t really have any patient for humans like them. His thoughts centering solely around the one person in his life that mattered. Daniel had escaped prison a couple of hours ago and the search for him had proved without result. 

It was as if the young halfas had vanished into thin air and taking his impressive manipulation of portals into the equation, it was very possible. But it didn’t sit right with the older halfa. 

Daniel had been set on remaining at the prison, having nothing restraining him in reality. No walls or bars could keep a being like Daniel caged and no man had any hoped of defeating him in a fair fight either. 

The young man had clearly wanted to take his chances in this self-made prison and not even Vlad’s threats had been able to make him change his stubborn mind. 

Meaning that Daniel hadn’t left willingly. 

The quiet radio in the corner of the room played an old piece and Vlad’s eyes narrowed as his speculations ran wild. 

The corpses of those guards were clearly the work of a ghost, but even though the ectoplasmic color matched that of Phantom’s, Daniel had no bloodlust in him to cause such havoc and bloodshed around him. 

The young halfa never fired to kill, only to paralyze or wound an opponent enough for them to step down from a fight. 

A sudden impulse made him feel insecure of his observation for a second, but he pushed it away, found it absurd. That pyromaniac in the ally had been an accident, a simple misstep born out of a broken heart. 

Daniel wasn’t a killer. Wasn’t like that. 

Vlad nodded to himself, Daniel had been kidnapped by another ghost. That had to be it. 

“What have you done to him!? Where is he!?” Sam Manson raged and Vlad turned around with a displeased scowl. 

Even though he was certain a ghost was involved and not human, he had to search all loose ends and interrogate the closest humans to Daniel as the least. Annoying, but necessary. 

“I could ask you two the same. When was the last time for either of you two spoke with Daniel?” 

The Manson woman stared him down in furious determination, which was to some extent impressive, taking that she didn’t even reach the height of his shoulders in heels. 

The dark man with the bandaged arm by her side was quiet as well, but looking less confident about the entire situation. Foley’s eyes darting between him, Manson and the Fright Knight standing cross armed behind them. 

He could prove to be the weakest of those two. 

“Well?” Vlad asked impatient and Sam barred her teeth. 

“Fuck you. Fuck you and all that you stand for,” she sneered low and spiteful, “it’s all your fault. You were the one who ruined him! You did this, you pedophile!” 

“I think the term you’re looking for is ‘ephebophilia’,” he corrected calmly without remorse, “but I’m afraid no human term could ever justify me and Daniel. We’re the only of our species after all and made for each other.” 

She spat on his polished loafer’s in reply. 

Vlad sighed and grabbed Tucker by the collar. The black man yelped, attempting to get out of the halfa’s grip. The effort, however, was futile and Vlad ignored the woman’s attempts to help her friend. 

The Fright Knight grabbed her by the hair and forced her back down to land on the carpet where she belonged, securing that she stayed there with the Soul Shredder inches from her skinny neck. 

“When was the last time?” Vlad repeated ruthless and pulled the frightful man almost close enough for their noses to smash together. 

Tucker stared into those crimson red eyes and sharp fangs with fearful eyes, felt all buildup bravery leave him and his mouth run wild. 

“I-I…I can’t tell you anything! I can’t – please just let her go, she doesn’t know anything!” 

“When I ask you a question, I expect an answer,” Vlad warned, voice dangerously low. 

Tucker swallowed and then gave him a curt, forced nod. 

“Alright, alright. We haven’t seen him since the day he was imprisoned. He didn’t want to see us, wouldn’t let us and neither would the jail.” 

“Liar,” Vlad growled and felt his anger run loose as the human sneered at him in sudden emotional rage. 

“It’s the truth! We couldn’t even bribe them, and Danny wanted to be left alone from all this shit and reporters – he just wanted to be left alone! Don’t you understan!? Danny wanted to be alone – from everything! He just wanted some godDAMN PEACE!!” 

Vlad threw him back on the ground with a sneer, “if you know what’s best for yourself and Daniel, you’ll tell what you know.” 

“Don’t you get it!?” Sam shouted and was grabbed by the Fright Knight before she could get close enough to claw Vlad’s eyes out, “there nothing you can do to us that will ever get close to what he’d already done!” 

She scrunched her eyes together in anger and bared her teeth in bitterness, “he left, he just left us! Everything and everyone! He gave up like a fucking coward – he abandoned his duty as our hero, he abandoned his friends, his office, his life…me…” 

The last will to fight left her in a broken sob and she collapsed back on her knees to bury her face in her hands. Filling the study with the sound of endless sorrows. 

Tucker moved to lays his still functional arm around her with downcast eyes and shared her grief without a word. Vlad scoffed by the pathetic display and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“You have no idea where he is, do you?” he asked, already knowing the answer and therefor making it more of statement, than actual question. 

Sam seemed to curl in on herself, while Tucker looked up with tired anger, “it doesn’t matter. He will return to us when he’s ready for it. He knows we’ll understand.” 

“And if he doesn’t?” Vlad asked simply, “what if he never returns to this place?” 

Tucker’s expression turned pained, but he held on to challenge Vlad’s stare without fear. 

“Then he won’t. Then we’ll just have to be thankful he returned to us the first time and appreciate the time we got to share with him. The time we had...the time he could offer us as a human.” 

Vlad sent the black man a strange glance, not knowing what to make of that. Had they known about Daniel’s immortality all along? 

He rolled his shoulders, tired from searching all night and most of the day. Tired of these humans. 

“Does the name ‘Sojourn’ mean anything to any of you?” 

The blank look in Tucker’s eyes told him all he needed to know and he gave Fright Knight the sign to remove the two from his premises. 

He should probably have killed them both for knowing his true nature, but they could still come into play as a bargain chip when he came back into contact with Daniel, or prove useful should he need any ghost hunters in the future. 

He turned his back on them, happy to finally be rid of them and their antics. Returned his eyes on the sunset outside his mansion. 

“If I were the two of you I would consider Daniel dead and just move one with your little mundane lives,” he said in goodbye and stiffed when Tucker replied in sheer abhorrence. 

“He died in that castle and you know it. He never returned from that ruin, he just kept on running from it. He’ll never stop and he’ll never stop running from _you_.” 

Vlad saw his own faint reflection gritting his teeth, but kept down the anger. The door clicked behind him and the footsteps faded out, but none of it gave him any peace. 

He moved to the open fireplace instead and picked a piece of coal out of the fire with a scowl. 

The burning material shrunk in his hand, as smoke curled through the gab of his fingers and he continued to squeeze the coal with all his might and frustration. Cracking and hissings sounds erupted from his hand and the grip of his fist shrank in pace with the pressing of the coal. 

He kept on clenching his fist until the calm returned and he could finally see other colors than red. He exhaled slowly, feeling how the fire had dried down in his hand and the hissing come to an end. 

The coal feeling smooth under his palm. He opened it to find an uncut diamond inside. 

The radio continued to play its merry tunes and Vlad closed his eyes.

 

__

_“Stars shining bright above you_  
_Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you"_  
_Birds singing in the sycamore trees_  
_Dream a little dream of me.”_

 

__

_“Say "nighty night" and kiss me_  
_Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me_  
_While I'm alone and blue as can be_  
_Dream a little dream of me.”_

 

__

_“Stars fading but I linger on, dear_  
_Still craving your kiss_  
_I'm longing to linger till dawn, dear_  
_Just saying this.”_

 

__

_“Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you_  
_Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you_  
_But in your dreams, whatever they be_  
_Dream a little dream of me.”_

 

“Plasmius,” Skulker said and announced his return from the hunt. 

Vlad turned half to him, eyes still on the diamond in his hand. 

“Did you find him? Any sign of the page?” 

Skulker shook his head, “I searched the entire headquarter of the Guys in White, the page and its attraction is gone. There’s no sign of the Whelp either, but most of the ghosts in this territory have disappeared as well. There’s a chance its related somehow. Any new orders before Skulker returned to his hunt?” 

Vlad turned the gemstone in his hand to catch the right light and sighed in annoyance, “just find the ghost who took him.” 

The hunter phased out of the study and left Vlad to himself once again. The man turned the diamond slowly, took in all the colors captured in the gemstone and focused on the reflection of icy blue and emerald green. 

I want to be with you, Vlad. But I don’t want to be you. 

“I’ll find you,” he promised and threw the diamond away, having no real value to him, “even if it will take me one hundred years.”

   
 

 _Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA_

“He really is a drama queen, don’t ya think?” Danny asked lightly with a humored grin, twisting the severity of his own story with his cheekiness, “I got his side of the story a couple of years ago when we ran into each other again. You should hear him talk sometime, what a fruitloop.” 

Nichols hid his unease by chewing a french-fry and cleared his throat, “and then?” 

“And then what?” Danny replied curiously, making the man question whenever he was screwing with him or not and the cop kind of regretted getting this friendly with the immortal. 

The more Danny opened up, the more brattier and cocky he got, and only the interest of the story kept Nichols from sneering at him like an old man. 

“What happened after you escaped prison? And became a murderer?” 

Danny stared back at him innocently, “I ran away with the circus. Bad Danny, bad.” 

Nichols massaged his temples and grunted, “I swear, it’s like the longer I talk with you, the less serious you take yourself and this story.” 

Danny snickered, “well you know, I’m just a runaway train – never coming back.” 

He pointed to Nichols with gun fingers and raised a hand to high-five, but only received a dead tired scowl in return. A duplicate appeared beside the young man and he high-fives his clone, “self-five, nice!” 

“Could you just be a little serious about this? You slaughtered five prison guards for god’s sake – what happened after?” Nichols insisted and Danny’s clone send him a mean look. 

“Oh I’m sorry? Is our skittishness about this particular part of the story a bother to you? It must be so hard having to wait on an abuse victim to get his shit together and find courage to spill the most painful moments of his life to an almost complete stranger.” 

The clone snorted and began eating Danny’s fries. The seated Danny send Nichols an apologetic look on behalf of his clone, like an embarrass parent at a parent-teacher meeting. 

“Sorry about that, he has too much of his father in him – yes, the story. As said I ran away with the circus after having murdered those people and as you might have guessed, I was beginning a time of my life that’s very hurtful and hard for me to talk about. Vlad always say I use jokes and sarcasm as a way of getting out of serious topics, but really, I think it’s my way of coping.” 

Nichols immediately felt guilty for snapping at Danny and his own impatience. 

It was easy to forget the trauma and scars Danny’s life had caused him and the difficulty of reliving such painful memories surely inflicted on him, when the boy was telling it so carefree and indifferent. 

“I’m sorry, Danny. Just continued when you’re ready.” 

Danny looked up at his clone as if to hear his opinion and the clone chewed thoughtful at his fry, gave Nichols a scrutinizing glance over the rim of the cola cup with a loud slurp. 

He leaned down to Danny with a shielding hand a whisper, “he’s okay I guess. I kinda like him.” 

“Me too,” Danny whispered loudly back and Nichols couldn’t help chuckling by their antics. The two smiled at him and Danny dissolved the duplicate and caught the fry falling from the air. 

“Alright, I give you the bloody details then, but most of it is still a little blurry to me. In the start, I would wake up from the trace when something shocked me enough or reminded me of the person I had been before Dan. Sometimes… it was because I was ordered to do something my sleeping mind, simply couldn’t stand for or I saw humans resembling the ones I had once loved. But I always returned to that mindless state again and forgot who I was. I guess a new personality had to take over for me to function…” 

Danny bit his lip, “the things I remember the most is how I suddenly got control over my cold problem. Realized I had to deflect the ice coming from my core, instead of keeping it inside. I remember that day I figured it out pretty clearly and I can recall most of the days that my new personality acted on his own.” 

“But not all,” Nichols concluded. 

Danny nodded. 

“There’s a lot of holes in that time I don’t remember and something tells me I don’t wanna know either.” 

“Understandable,” Nichols retorted and folded his hands, “just tell me what you can handle. I can understand that you met Vlad again, but what about Sam and Tucker?” 

Danny’s eyes didn’t reveal any sign of hurt or regret, but the extra second it took him to answer him spoke more than words. 

“As I said. They moved on with their lives, maybe not at first, maybe not willingly, but they moved on. I’m sure they searched for me. That they tried to track me down and help me, but in many ways, I’m grateful that they didn’t find me. I was a different person then and that person didn’t have or would have recognized them as friends. He wasn’t human.” 

Danny looked down with a frown and seemed to see things act out before him, “he was just evil. There is no other way for me to explain him.” 

Nichols waited for Danny’s far-away eyes to return to the interrogation room and the young man snapped back to the present a few seconds later, “well, everyone have a dark time in their life and I guess this is the 1# on my personally list of shitty experiences.” 

He smiled to himself in self-sarcasm, “in some ways you could say that Freakshow was a good turn in my live. He saved me from the chair after all. He saved my life…made it a thing to remind me of every day…reminded me of why I belonged in the dark as the main attraction. Why I was Dan.”

   
 

_Year 1935, the main tent of Circus Gothica outside Berlin, Germany_

_**“Reminded me of why I belonged in the dark as the main attraction.** _

_**Why I was Dan."** _

   
 

The smell of popcorn and smoke was in the air. 

Sounds of laughter, roaring animals and china-box music filled the place and the jugglers on stilts grinned down at the circus visitors through demon and skull masks. 

The steady stream of tourists, couples looking for new entertainments and young students drunk on life and vodka, moved down the line to the opening of the black and white-striped circus tent. 

The skeleton looking construction on the top of the main tent, barred its teeth at humans below it and more than one visitor let out a scream of excitement and cheap horror. 

The opening was guarded by two crimson clowns selling black cotton candy and other blackened types of snacks, tempting people to buy something to chew during the show, even though most of them had already filled their stomach to the brim down at the fair. 

The laughter and girly squeals of easily scared girls clinging to their husbands or boyfriends, reached Dan from his position on top of the tent and he send the slow-moving crowd below him a look of despise. 

“Humans,” he sneered and blew a huff of smoke to the giant skeleton above him, “seeing any tasty ones down there, skully?” 

The fake skeleton, of course, didn’t respond as it was only a lifeless thing made out of light tree, but Dan smirked anyway and took another exhale of his cigarette like it had humored him with an answer, “huh, being a lazy bone as always, I see.” 

His little moment with the tent’s top decorating was interrupted when a red hooded figure phased through the striped fabric and sought him out with immediacy. 

Dan eyed the ghost with dry interest and stubbed his cigarette on the beam he was resting on. 

“What do you want, Lydia?” 

The ghost pulled back her hood to reveal a green-skinned face decorated with ghostly tattoos, piercings and styled strands of hair sticking out from her head like spikes. 

She didn’t utter a word as he allowed his red eyes to run down her almost naked form and her own solid red orbs showed no signs of disliking it either. 

Despises Freakshow’s claim on her, Dan had fucked her enough times to know she was only mute by choice, having made her scream countless times and whimper when he’d choked her right before her climax. 

He smirked by the memory and decided he was going to take her again tonight. 

She beaconed for him to follow, before phasing down the tent and Dan flicked the cigarette into the air and pulled his own black cloak back over his face, before phasing down after her. 

They had barely reached the backstage of the tent, before Freakshow’s commands and demands reached them clearly and the man in the top hat and gothic show man suit turned to them with a scowl as they landed before him. 

“Slaves! Center ring!” Freakshow yelled and the ghost still hiding in their glamor-forms, shed their human appearances of like a second skin and moved to form a ring with their fellow ghost around the ringmaster. 

“It’s a great day for us, my freaks,” the man pronounced server and pointed to them with his staff after turn, the ball at the end coloring their pale and green skin red like blood, “it is our first day of the tour through north Europe this summer and I expect you all to be sharp and making your act to perfection.” 

None of the ghosts answered as none of them seemed to have any mind on their own and Dan resisted the pull of the staff to use half his mind to focus on his surroundings. 

Throughout the years in the circus, Dan had started to become more and more aware of his own will as a person and found that he could make decisions outside the presence of Freakshow’s staff. 

The red fog that seemed to make him want to obey and do as the human said, seemed to have lost its hold of him when he was away from it and that meant one thing. 

Opportunity. 

Dan couldn’t tell if it was the crystal orb’s cracked imperfection or the fact that he was only half-ghost that made him less controllable by the staff, but to him it was all the same. 

He was aware of himself and his powers, and that was all that mattered. The next step would of course be to take the staff and kill the pathetic human enslaving him, but the whole spell kept him from doing so, as it forced him to obey the human. 

He could fantasize about slaughtering Freakshow, but not act on it. 

As long as the staff was his and the orb whole, Dan was the slave of it – but breaking it would mean the end of Dan as well. The end of this dark power he had been gifted. 

Dan forced his face to remain a dark expression as the ringmaster passed him and he held on to the act as obedient minion. 

For now that is. 

Freakshow ended speech of self-righteousness and stopped by one of the older ghosts with a bark, “there’s an art gallery in the center of Berlin, go there and take as much as you can carry in one trip and nothing more – take those two morons with you to do the job.” 

The three ghosts flew off without a word and Freakshow continued to pick out the most experienced of his minions, before turning with a snap and pointed to Dan with the staff. 

“There should be more than one single street of jewelers I want you to raid, but do it quick and try not to cause so much attention this time. As much as I enjoy the art of blood, the bodies bring up too much attention.” 

Dan just grinned and lifted from the ground to gather his team of thieves. Lydia and three other ghosts from his circus act and routine followed him out and Dan took the lead as they shoot through the air and set course for the streets of Berlin. 

It didn’t take an idiot to locate the obvious shops down the grand boulevards and fancy streets, but Dan read the signs and fronts anyways to ensure they didn’t pass anything on their way. 

Unlike the others, he was able to read German and other languages. The memories of home torturing faint in his mind, but the understandable of the languages there nevertheless. 

It was strange in many ways to know that he had lived before the dark side, but not remembering it fully. Dan wasn’t heartbroken to know he had lost a previously life, only a bit sour he had lost the free will he had possessed before. 

At first, he had simply just wanted to follow the ringmaster’s orders and cause harm where he could, but with the years, little bits of pieces of his past had creeped though and reminded Dan of a time before the circus. 

A time where he had been weak. 

He scoffed to himself and watched the other ghosts return from the shops with their stolen trinkets and jewelry, knew there had to be more to the world than simply thievery. 

Knew that true power was more than just piles of art and gold in a train running in the same circle of entertaining mindless masses while stealing from them at night. 

Dan wanted more, but didn’t know what. 

A triggered alarm made Dan scowl at the careless ghost of his crew and he sapped them all as punishment with an ecto-blast. 

“Get your Ecto-butts in gear, you idiots!” he growled and forced them forward without mercy as they all retreated to the direction of the fair. 

Dan made a halt down the head street, as the police came running down the street towards them in a formation and turned to face them with drawn weapons. 

Dan grinned maliciously by the sight of the uniformed men lining up with their guns and he decided to try out that new power of his. Freakshow had forbidden him from making a bloody scene, but he hadn’t say anything about freezing the bodies solid. 

He made a signal to the rest of the crew to fly ahead and the policemen gawked as the ghosts phased right through them. Dan regained the people’s attention with a dark crackled as he shot down to the men at full speed from the air. 

They yelled at him in German to stop and surrender, but that only widened his grin and Dan made a hard landing ten meters from them, slammed his fist into the pavement. 

A groan from underground, was the only warning the humans got before powerful torrents of blue ghost ice broke through the ground in sharp shards of clear ice and pierced the most unfortunate of the officers. 

The rest screamed in panic by the deadly ice shooting up from the underground to pierce their fellow men and they tried to outrun the long cracks chasing them, as the ice spikes shoot out from the openings in the pavement and its death cold deeps. 

Dan observed it all calmly as he walked through the cruel wonderland of ice with a sadistic grin lightening his face in the dark. His red eyes burning with their own diabolism and hunger for satisfaction in form of destruction. 

The last strangled chokes from the pierced humans died out in the night as their bodies gave in to the ice and Dan searched the scene for any survivors. A low chuckle escaped his chest as he soon spotted his last victim. 

The last officer to have survived groaned in terror by the sight of Dan walking towards him and fought to get back on his feet and run in panic. Only to realize his left leg had been frozen solid and weighting him down with literal deadweight. 

“Nein! Gnade, bitte!” (No! Mercy, please!) the man begged in panic and was ignored by the halfa. 

The begging man tried wrestle free of the glowed hand that lifted him by the collar. Struggled now to get air, as the hand tightened around the stiff officer collar. Dan smirked by the pathetic sight. 

“How do you like the early Christmas, human?” Dan asked calmly and watched the fallen snow that had formed naturally from his overuse of ice power, “neat, huh? The sewers provide me with all the water I need in order to explore this new power of mine. It’s a shame cold temperature tend to be such a pain on my form for too long, else we could be spreading some winter joy to the people.” 

The man choked and repeated his begging, making Dan getting tired of him fast and he sighed, “can’t understand a word of English I see. I would have thought it to be a necessity after your beloved Keiser failed you so horrible back in the war and the Americans came in to pick up the scraps. Knowing all about your enemy is important. Getting inside their head, even more so.” 

The officer let go with one of his hands and moved it down to grab his baton instead. Dan moved his head in time to avoid the hit and headbutted the man with a scowl. 

The officer landed back on the cracked pavement with a groan and bleeding nose. He grabbed his face in pain, making his cap fell of his head. Dan tilted his head a bit. Stared at those silver strands and high cheekbones the man had suddenly revealed. 

The man screamed in shock as Dan’s black boot hammered down and crushed the frozen leg to nothing but icy pieces. Still in shock, the man pulled his half-missing leg to him in screaming cramps and became white in the face from the immense pain. 

Dan continued to stare at the human and his suffering, before he finally kneeled down beside him. Studied the expressions of pain and terror. 

“Hmm, you remind me of an idiot cheesehead of mine,” Dan said suddenly and grabbed the man’s face gently to turn it towards him. 

The hair was shorter and less shining, but the color seemed right. Instead of deep midnight eyes, red-rimmed and tear-filled hazel orbs stared up into his and unlike his old silverfox, this german didn’t seem to posse any aristocratic features, other than the slightly long face structure. 

Dan continued to be obvious to the man’s pain as he pulled the man closer to his face. The protests increased the closer the got, before the man suddenly stopped his whining when their lips were only inches apart. 

To shocked to speak or move in the half-ghost’s grip. 

The man’s fearful breath came out in huffs of white clouds and becoming Dan’s oxygen to steal. Dan smiled with lidded eyes as he caressed the man’s cheek tenderly. 

“There you go, making me all horny and annoyed. How low of you – and I was just beginning to feel like giving you an easy death,” Dan whispered in his own twisted sense of humor and the man whimpered in fright. Too scared to move or speak, as Dan brought their faces closer. 

“Erbarme dich, Du musst Güte in dir haben, (have mercy, you most have goodness i you)” the man begged with a sob, as he woke up from his haze of fright and pressed his hands against Dan’s shoulders to stop him from getting any closer. 

Dan only chuckled, before he suddenly pressed the man forward to steal a kiss from the freezing man's lips. 

“I used to have,” Dan admitted to the confused man and smiled, “but I grew out of it. Although…I never really grew out of _him._ ” 

Dan bared his fangs again, making the officer widening his eyes, “and now you reminded me of that.” 

The fangs cut into the soft flesh of the man’s cheeks like a rusty knife through raw beef, tearing the skin and veins to the unrecognizable. The officer’s screams rose to the deafening, as the halfa tore his face of piece for piece. 

The officer’s hands clawed at Dan’s cloak in desperate spasms and the shaking body whipped up the puddle of blood and melted ice water collecting beneath the man. 

The pink water collected itself in the dents of the road and ran down to the nearest sewer drain or cracks, to the sound of the humans struggles. 

The lone police boot kicked and squirmed to get free beneath the half-ghost, to run, to escape, get the rest of the man anywhere else than here. Dan spat out the man’s left eyes with blood running down his chin and digged his fangs into the exposed jawbone. 

A high-pitched wail filling his ears, as the halfa got hold of a junk of flesh and tore his head back in a fast snap to separate meat from bone. 

The mauled man exclaimed a sound like a broken waterpipe and Dan licked his lips, enjoying the sound like sweet music coming from that jaw and meatless face on the ground. 

The corpse was unceremoniously pushed down into the nearest crack after it had stopped moving and Dan dried his face with his sleeve, as the ice melted back to water and flooded the dead officers back down into the deeps of the cracks and into the sewers. 

The dirty water would lead the bodies away, while the cracks could be taken as a gas leak explosion or small earthquake by the morning paper. 

Dan didn’t really care what excuses the humans would make up for the sake of explaining what they couldn’t understand or live with knowing, as long as he could have his way with it all. 

He had had his fun and found another loophole in the ringmaster’s command. 

He pulled the grim reaper cloak closer around him in the dark night and allowed the hood to shield his face. Leaving only to red lights show his eyes to the beholder who dared to peak out their window. 

He had an act in the tent to perform.

   
 

He arrived back at the circus in time to see Lydia walking into the scene in her human-form and he took a second to listen to the rush of applause and shrieks coming in waves from the rows. 

Dan ignored it and walked out back to make sure the crew had secured the raid in the train carriage meant for it and not somewhere in the open where a wayward visitor risked stumble across it. 

Dan had had his deal with such kids and teens wanting to get more show for the money and he had fund that it was easier to kill them in open sight, than make them disappear unnoticed. 

If a kid vanished, humans came snooping to look for it, but if he overshadowed the child and made them go home to themselves and take their own life there, the circus wouldn’t get accused of nothing. 

Dan looked around with the slight hope of actually catching one today. It had been months since he had gotten the chance to lead a child home to explore the many possibilities of death a beloved home could offer. 

Drowning in the toilet. 

Falling on a kitchen knife. 

Strangle themselves in the phone wire. 

Climb onto top of the wardrobe to having it falling down on them and crush every bone in their small fragile bodies… The choices were endless really and he hadn’t even tried out setting one on fire yet. 

Well, that time that pleasure. 

“What are you doing out here, you drone!” Freakshow yelled as he walked out from his private train carriage and pointed at Dan with the staff, “you’re on in less than five minutes – get in there!” 

Dan obeyed and phased into the tent to hide among the shadows of the high wire’s platform. 

Below him, Lydia finished her act of self-impalement and cut herself loose from the hooks fixed into her skin, leaving the scene to the ringmaster, who made his dramatic entre by appearing out of the darkness and into a spotlight. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, curios people and seeker of the darkness! Prepare to be disturbed and appalled by a small sample of the bizarre and abnormal world of Circus Gothica we have to offer you this summer tour.” 

He pointed to Dan’s hideout with his staff and all eyes looked up at the tents pool, where a rope was stretched from one end of the tent to another, and a man was tied up on the platform. Blindfolded and clearly frightened. 

“Please welcome a performer who puts the ‘death’ in ‘death-defying acts’ – the Grim Reaper himself and the newest talent joining us tonight for his first and final performance.” 

Dan stepped out of the shadows and wielded his scythe to cut the robes and blindfold that had contained the man chained to the platform’s pole. The man gasped by the sudden freedom after having been bound for days. 

He stumbled forward and hurried to step back as his face changed to a state of borderline fear by the sight of the fall below them. Dan smirked behind him and gave the human a kick in the back. 

The man shouted in surprise and flapped his arms like wings to regain balance and not falling off the edge of the platform. 

“Yo-you will never get away with this!” he threatened Dan furiously as he regained his footing on the edge of the platform. Dan raised his scythe to hang an inch from the man’s sweating throat. 

“You’ll be surprised what the ringmaster have gotten away with – now move out on the rope.” 

The man eyed the thin rope with an expression of sickness and put up his hand with a quivering voice, “no, please! I can’t walk on a wire! I will fall to my death!” 

“What do you think they’re paying for?” Dan chuckled and pushed the man out with a hard poke of his weapon. 

The man screamed on his way down, only able to take one step on the wire, before losing balance. The spectators gasped in amazement as the man grabbed out in panic and by some godly influence he succeeds in grabbing the very rope and was now hanging from it in both hands. 

The rows screamed and hooted in excitement by what they believed to be an act. Getting worked up and making the tent a sound knot of humans’ demanding for a show. Dan walked out on the wire with ease. 

He would give them a show. 

The spotlights landed on Dan’s hooded figure and he threw his scythe into the air and grabbed it again in a twilling fashion that made the audience awe. 

Dan continued to throw and recapture the weapon in different neck-breaking moments and made his act more and more impossible, by having the scythe getting further and further away from him. 

The audience exploded in applause when he caught the weapon standing sideways on the rope and he freaked out the still struggling man, by suddenly walking underneath it. Defying all laws of gravity. 

“Wait! Wait! Wait!” the human protester, but the rope had already been cut. 

Dan remained in the same position now in free air and looked down/up after the man falling to his death. Two sad clowns on the bottom of the ring, looked up and stepped out of the grave they had been digging while Dan had made his act up by the height wire. 

The screaming human landed perfectly in the grave with a smacking sound and the audience – believing it to be an act – cheered wildly and applauded loudly. 

Dan made himself fall as well and made the spectators scream up for a second time, before he turned in midair and landed perfectly on his feet beside the grave. Unharmed and alive, unlike the human in the grave. 

He bowed to the applause while the clowns began refilling the hole once again. Freakshow stepped up to send Dan back out and announced it was time for a break before second half of the show. 

Dan send the crushed corpse in the hole one last look and followed the ringmaster out through the curtains to return to backstrage. 

“Ha! I can’t believe how profitable that rat turned out to be,” Freakshow crackled and led Dan and his court of ghosts out back to the train, “this act will have to be part of the show from now one. But we can’t wait for snoopers to come along and let them self’s get caught around my train carriages before every show...” 

The thinking human cradled his chin in deep thought and then snapped his hand and pointed to Dan. 

“You, go find some hobo and get him freshen up for the act tomorrow. We’ll need one for every night from now one.” 

Dan smirked by that as he changed back into his human-half along with the other ghosts switching to their glamour and followed along their master’s shadow as an extension. 

Freakshow was in a good mood tonight and went as far as to place an arm around Dan’s broad shoulders, leading him next to him rather than behind him like the rest of the ghosts. 

“I tell you, Dan, you really know how to make yourself useful, find me more government rats like that and I might promote you,” Freakshow promised him amused and Dan opened the carriage door for him like he was trained to. 

They all stopped by the sight of five soldier in uniform waiting for them in the card and Freakshow’s shocked expression was changed to one of anger on a wimp, when he saw one of the men had taking the seat behind the ringmaster’s own desk. 

“Who are you and what are you doing in my card?” the ghost-whisperer sneered furiously. Lydian and Dan moved to shield him automatic and was ready to show their true form as ghost the second Freakshow commanded it. 

“No need for the use of your ghosts,” the man behind the desk retorted calmly and put down the book he had been reading and turned the chair to them. 

Freakshow jumped to the act at the second. 

“Ghosts? What ghosts? These?” he asked innocently and gestured to the glamored specters,” I’m afraid to disappoint you, but they’re not real ghosts or zombies or vampires. It’s an act. It’s just a circus performance.” 

The man dressed like a general, waited for Freakshow to end his lies and then picked up a folder from a bag one of his fellow soldiers was carrying. 

“Herr Showenhower, the man you so brutally executed tonight was a man we had been searching after for months. I suspect that you and your fellow creatures killed him for the sake of your own cover to remain untouched, but I would like to show you this and thank you for your services on the behalf of der Führer.” 

Freakshow had been listening with confusing and looked down at the papers the man had opened for him to see. Dan read over his shoulder in secret and came to understand the man he had cut down from the high wire had been a British agent. 

Wanted and hunted by the Nazi party. 

“Well then,” Freakshow said and tapped his staff in his right hand, “then I’ll be happy to receive the bounty and pride myself of being someone having been useful to the party.” 

“The money will be nothing compared to the honor we are here to bestow you, Herr Showenhower,” the German announced stoic and tapped on the papers again, “if you look closely you will see that this agent was sent to infiltrate and spy on the ground of which Der Führer wishes exploited for the sake of restoring artifacts that could prove valuable to die Vaterland.” 

Freakshow frowned and then waved with his glove-clad hand, “go on.” 

“Studies of ghosts have showed them to be both real and powerful creatures, Herr Showenhower. Until now they have been creatures unable to contain or control, but your staff is the proof that even death is beatable for mankind and the superior race.” 

The man noticed Freakshow tensing by the talk of his staff and he held up a hand dismissively, “we sind not here to take the staff from them. But we wish your assistant in the matter of correction of these spirits. We wish you to use your family’s long history of ghost expertise to collecting the pages of Sojourn.” 

“Hmm, I only believed that to be a legend,” Freakshow hummed lowly and the Nazis looked at each other, before the leader opened a second briefcase and handed Freakshow a dossier, containing a couple of photos. 

Freakshow looked at the photos one by one and his frown loosened up to become an expression of astonishment 

“Sixteen pages,” the ringmaster whispered in awe and the leader nodded gravely. 

“We know there must be more to find in diese spiritual dimension called ‘der Ghost Zone’, but to enter it we would need ghosts controlled by someone on the opposite site.” 

“A human,” another of the officers added and Freakshow tapped his staff on his cheek in thought, clearly leaning to the side of taking the deal. 

“And I will be handsomely paid?” 

“Der Führer insisted on all your needs taken care of and money provided for the sake of all your expenses. Well then?” 

Dan remained unmoving while twisting on the inside. He now knew the time of waiting had been worth it. He now knew what he wanted. 

“Deal,” Freakshow grinned widely and shook the hand of the man. 

Dan watched them silently from the sideline. Making his own ideas of what to make of this opportunity as old memories of a certain other halfa and his plans returned to him through the mist of his past. 

Yes, he knew what he wanted now. 

He wanted the power of Sojourn’s journal.


	33. Vlad finds more than he thought, and Danny gets more than he can take

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny lost a page in New York - but he wasn't the first  
>  _“We caught a ghost near the vault,” Walker replied, looking very pleased with himself, “she too could read the page, claiming it to be the tongue of the dead. Seems like that spook told us the truth after all. Maybe we should have given her the easy way out after all.”_  
>  Danny wasn’t slow to understand and couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice, “wait, you killed the ghost? But if she was telling you the truth –”  
>  _Walker scoffed, “what’s done is done. Now that her pack of ghosts is scattered and their ringmaster in jail, they will be easy to hunt down after this task._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same ringmaster runs into Danny in jail  
>  _Danny turned to him with wide eyes and lifted a shaking hand in protest as Freakshow lifted his crystal ball with a shouting command, “obey me, minion!”_  
>  _The green eyes were replaced with red and the pleading expression was switched with one of dark confidence. Now back in control, Freakshow planned out his next move and was lifted into the air by Phantom._
> 
> Danny is now Dan, but his past still haunts him  
>  _Vlad smiled, “you might not believe it, but that only makes us more alike. I to wouldn’t be afraid to take another man’s life – but taking the life of the only person in this world that could ever understand you, my boy? The only person to ever stay by your side as your family and loved ones die of age?”_  
>  _Danny scowled, “yes.”_
> 
>  
> 
> _Vlads voice turned firmly, “you can pray to all the gods you want, Daniel and believe what you want, but there will come a day when you will understand that this and only this, is real. Next time you pray to your God, you will see this before you. See me.”_
> 
>  
> 
> And in the future, Danny is still reliving his own nightmare  
>  _“Trust me when I say the story doesn’t getter lighter from now on,” Danny continued emotionlessly, looking less mortal than ever, “the stray path I had started the unholy year of 1927 was long and merciless. I remember the end of the road, still sees it before my eyes sometime, even though I no longer have nightmares about it. At least not that part.”_  
>  _A humorless smile tugged in the corner of those perfect cold lips._  
>  _“Vlad awaited me at the end of the road to ruin. Untouched by time and looking like the day I meet him. As always, only I seem to be changed by the time we spend separated. Covered in the blood of innocent and lost to the madness I had become, I remember asking him…”_  
>  _Nichols pushed a little back in his seat as the immortal being before him leaned forward with eyes like a cut of the cold winter sky._  
>  _“…’aren’t you proud of what I’ve become? Aren’t you proud of your **son?’** ” Danny whispered with a voice containing all the broken and unforgiven actions no human could ever hope to receive redemption from._  
>  _“It was the day I finally broke him,” Danny said, eyes still not offering the slightest of emotion, “my unbreakable tormenter, my dark knight and foe cracked before me and wept tears for the thing I had become. No blow or cut could ever had caused him the pain I inflicted him that day.”_  
>  _A crackle escaped Danny’s lips, “and all I had to do was become the villain of my own story.”_
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey you wonderful readers and people :D  
> are you ready for a Dan-Vlad confrontation? To hopefully get outraged by this unholy dark side of our own beloved ghost boy?  
> And more importantly - a great part of this chapter was inspired from this amazing piece of art, made by the amazing/talented/wonderful artist i'm following on tumblr called ghost-chicky and you can take a look for yourself if you click here: http://ghost-chicky.tumblr.com/image/116542357897   
> Ready or not, here it comes - hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 1944, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France_

Skulker’s senses was sharpened by the silence. 

The dark and empty museum surrounded him like a well-decorated tomb and he send the different displays of painting an indifferent look. 

Skulker had never really understood art other than the beauty of hunting trophies and rare creatures for him to cage and admire from the armchair in his lair, but despite all that, he was still on the hunt for a human-made painting tonight. 

He stopped before one of the maps to find the floor and corridor he needed and phased through a couple of walls. 

The empty halls greeted him with their silence and he stopped by the sight of several empty frames leaning against the walls they had once been displayed one. 

Plasmius had instructed him to find a painting still hanging on a wall, insuring him that the Germans hadn’t picked that corridor for valuable paintings yet. 

Skulker snorted. Humans stealing art from humans. He knew nothing of nations indifferences or what this second war was about, but he could understand the meaning of stealing another enemy’s valuables for the sake of humiliation and superiority. 

He left the empty frames behind and floated to the last corridor of his right. He knew he was at the right place when he found that none of the paintings had been taken down or removed from their frames. 

The pull of a ghostly object made him drift closer to a particular painting the size of his torso. 

He read the name plate to be sure. 

_L'ombre de Samuel apparaissant à Saül chez la pythonisse d'Endor_

Skulker rechecked it with the list in his helmed and gave the painting a short glance. Plamius had mentioned something about the painting illustrating a scene about a history of a ghost being summoned and showing itself before a bunch of humans. 

But to the hunter, the ghost on the panting seemed a bit pathetic to the actual ghost. What self-respecting ghost would fly around in nothing but a white sheet and let humans order it around? 

The hunter suddenly stiffened by the sound of a fluttering fabric and turned invisible as he flew to the other end of the corridor. The hunter’s eyes narrowed when a hooded figure hovered down the corridor and drifted closer. 

He couldn’t see the specter’s face other than the red light of two eyes below the hood and he felt a light shiver run down his metal back by the strength of the stranger’s signature. 

This was a strong one. Stronger than him. 

The hunter debated whenever to attack or not when the ghost stopped before the same painting he had been standing in front of a few seconds before. The figure did what Skulker had hoped he wouldn’t and ripped the painting form the wall. 

Without respect or any remorse for the art piece, the ghost turned the painting around and tore of the paper on the backside of in one clean motion. 

A green page revealed itself with its green glow and the hooded figure picked it out and discarded the painting without a care. Ignored it as it fell to the floor and sent small specks of paint out to litter the floor. 

Skulker moved to make a sneak attack, when the stranger suddenly turned his head in his direction and pulled down the hood. 

“Whelp?” Skulker asked surprised and the whitehaired man smirked grimly. 

“Skulker. You really should learn how to hide that signature. You’re sitting duck like that.” 

Skulker didn’t know what to answer to that and the halfa didn’t seem to expect an answer either. Waved the page before the hunter teasingly. 

“Come for this?” 

“Plasmius’ looking for you both,” Skulker admitted and watched as the halfa packed the page away in his cloak and crossed his firm arms with an arrogant look. 

“Is he now, that must have been a slow hunt. It’s been a while since I last seen any of you. 17 years to be exact,” the halfa said calmly and then smirked mockingly, “and you call yourself the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter?” 

Skulker growled and his former – and present prey – chuckled darkly, “I would love to stay and chat about the old days with you, but I have my orders. Tell Plasmius I’ll be waiting for him at the outskirts of town.” 

Skulker could only watch as the halfa jumped through one of his portals and the hunter couldn’t tell if this was a plus for him or not. 

On one hand, he had just lost the page he had been sent to fetch – but on the other hand, he had the location of both the page and the whelp his boss had been searching for so desperately for years. 

He hummed in thought and started the flight back to Plasmius’s location. 

He had something to tell.

   
 

Plasmius and Skulker teleported to the second store inside of the ruins of the restaurant a certain signature was vaporing from. 

Vlad had his suspensions of this to be a trap, with the unsuppressed ghost signature and invitation and all – but the promise of seeing Daniel again and getting him back was too tempting to allow to go past him. 

But should anything happened that he and Skulker couldn’t take on their own, he had made sure to have the Fright Knight waiting in the background to show, should things get out of hand. 

Finding Daniel’s ghost signature had been too easy… 

The old halfa narrowed his eyes, as he recalled the hunter’s story. Daniel’s little spilled information about “having orders” didn’t set well with the older halfa. 

Vlad lifted a hand to make Skulker stand back and stepped forward alone. The building that had once been a restaurant, was now a delicate painting of the destruction most of Paris had suffered during these past years. 

In Vlad’s opinion, it was a shame and he missed the view he had used to enjoy while visiting the city of light in his youth. 

The sound of distant bullets and the view of dirty people working and collecting a living from the scraps outside the building, made him scrunched his nose in disgust. 

He sighed in relief as the second store of this empty restaurant turned out to be mostly untouched by bombshells or fallen pieces of near buildings. Untouched, but also empty. 

Its guest and host having probably been evacuated before the Germans could get to them. 

The aroma of food and sound of utensils reached him faintly, and the signature’s beacon like strength grew in pace with it. Plasmius raised a surprised eyebrow by the power of the signature. 

My…Daniel must have evolved his powers quite a bit since they last talked. 

The soft light of a candle greeted him behind a half-closed door down the end of the hall and he stepped forward to open it. He stopped for a second with the hand on the handle, as a smell of metal mixed with the scent of roasted beef. 

Two scents that didn’t seem to be of the same origin. Something dripped from the ceiling and landed with a soft thud on his shoulder. Thinking it was rainwater, Vlad ignored it and stepped through the door to think no more of it. 

His thoughts soon occupied by the sight behind the door. 

A raven-haired man in uniform was seated by a large table and eat silently from the plate before him with silver utensils. The sight made Vlad lose his breath. 

The young halfa had clearly undergone some changes since New York. 

The last baby fat had left the square face and formed a more defined expression of adulthood, well kept by the strong eyebrow and window-peak hairline displayed by the shoulder long hair held back with a string. 

The young detective from New York had been replaced with a man and the SS uniform made it hard not to stare at the firm chest and well devolved abs hiding beneath. 

When the man looked up, Vlad got a second surprise by finding that Daniel had grown a black beard. A goatee identical to Vlad’s old one. He couldn’t help but feeling flattered. 

“Funny. Last time we met after years of separation, I was the one to stare. How things turn around.” 

Vlad snapped out of his staring and transformed into his human form now that he was assured it wasn’t a trap. 

Daniel nodded by the sight of Vlad’s silver hair styled with sidecuts and trimmed beard covering his jaw. An expensive suit and black trench-coat cladding him along with a matching hat, which Vlad placed on the table. 

“Mind if I join you, Daniel?” Vlad asked and pulled out a chair next to him. 

The younger halfa ate the last of his meal and pushed the plate away. 

“It’s Dan now,” he informed and crossed his legs, making Vlad look a little longer than necessary at those sculpted calves, “so, to what do I owe this little blast from the past?” 

“You wanted to see me, my boy,” Vlad reminded him and felt a certain heat spread in his loins by that devilishly smirk the other was showing him and he swallowed to get his voice under control, “I must say time has treated you exquisitely. You look well.” 

“You know, if I had an ounce of humanity left in me this would have been very heartwarming to hear, you look fine yourself, Plasmius. Very fine _indeed_ …” 

Vlad shivered pleasantly by the flirtatious tone and it made him ignore the slight unease he was beginning to feel in the man’s company. 

Daniel – or Dan, as he preferred – had clearly gotten over his little silly phase of self-loathing and useless pity for humanity, but despite the healthy appearance and nice new openness to his personality…something was horrible off. 

Vlad couldn’t tell what was nagging him until he understood that the red color of Daniel’s eyes wasn’t the reflection of the candle light, but the man’s actually eye color itself. 

He put up a calm smirk to hide his thoughts and leaned forward, “now that we’re united again, how about we go to my bunker and celebrate it with some champagne, hmm?” 

Dan’s smirk widened by the hand Vlad had laid on his thigh and he leaned close enough for their noses to almost brush. Felling the heat of Vlad’s skin. 

“Tempting,” Dan purred sultry and played with the trimmed hair of the older halfa’s beard, “but I’m afraid I have a performance to return to. Can’t have them waiting on me, I’m the main attraction after all.” 

Vlad frowned, “a performance?” 

Dan grinned, “yes, strange how faith works, don’t you think? The Guys in White send a man to prison for one of Sojourn’s pages, I give up myself to the police and they plant me in the exact same prison. Now I hunt pages for him and the Nazi party. I must have been destined to run off with the circus.” 

He brushed his lips against the older man’s, “if you want the page, you will join me.” 

Dan pulled back slowly, but Vlad grabbed his hair and pushed him back in. Their lips smashed together like in old times and both fought for dominance without a second thought. 

For the first time, Dan won and entwined his hand in Vlad’s hair to turn his head as he wanted. Deepened the kiss and sucked on his lip with a groan. Vlad couldn’t breathe, but didn’t care. 

He had craved for this for years and took in the wild power and passion he was given. He wanted him even more than ever, having found himself awaking at night from illicit caressing and dreams about the boy, when he finally got some sleep. 

The lounging for him had kept him from finding happiness in anything else, made him restless and forced him to distract himself with work or he would go mad. 

The search for the pages had kept him busy, but the younger halfa had never really left his mind, even when he took pills to gain a decent night’s sleep. 

Always haunted by the thoughts of the other and his hopes growing from time to time, when Skulker thought he had found a new lead to where his soulmate had been brought too. 

Which reminded him of the culprit who had taken away his happiness. 

Apparently, Dan was still under the control of the man or ghost, who had used him to escape from prison and Vlad would have to secure that his badger never returned to this person ever again. 

Dan crackled as Vlad pushed him up against the table and forcefully pushed the younger man’s legs open with a knee. 

Despite Dan’s many changes, Vlad was still a head taller than him and the younger halfa groaned sultry as Vlad tore open the collar of the uniform and bit into the exposed skin. 

Having missed the smell, the taste and the feeling of his lover to a painful point that almost made this overload of experience too much to handle. 

“Yes,” Dan whispered with a hiss and pulled Vlad closer with his legs, forced their erections together and made them both groan from the friction. 

Vlad almost lost it when Dan began rocking into him and he ripped the last of the Nazi jacket and shirt open, making buttons pop and scatter across the floor. 

“I missed you so much,” Vlad whispered and pushed Dan down on the table. 

Dan moaned and ached his back of the table by the bites and kisses Vlad was leaving down his chest and stomach. The older halfa’s eyes turned red with a hiss, by the arousing feeling of Dan’s nails biting into his shoulders and dragging red bleeding lines down his back. 

Vlad’s erection throbbed painfully when Dan digged his teeth into his lower lip and opened Vlad’s eye for the fact that Daniel had developed fangs at some point these past seventeen years. 

A thin stream of blood ran from their mouths to end in their facial hair and Vlad pulled back to the sight of Dan licking his bloody lips with sultry red eyes. 

How alike they had become… 

_I want to be with you, Vlad. But I don’t want to **be** you._

Vlad captured Dan’s lips again and tasted the blood on his tongue, the metallic aroma mixing with the painful restrain their clothes had proved to be. 

Dan’s hands sought out to rip Vlad’s pants open and release his length, but Vlad stopped him by gripping his hands and locked them on the table above the raven-haired man’s head. 

Dan moaned by the tight grip and didn’t sense the second duplicate that had formed at the other end of the table. 

Vlad smothered the sound with a deep kiss and roamed his hands across the hard muscles and abs jumping and rolling under his palms. 

The click of metal cuffs and cold feeling of metal around his wrists, made Dan turn his head back over and the duplicate dissolved back into Vlad with a regretful expression. 

“I’m truly sorry, Daniel, but I can’t let you get away from me again,” Vlad said and Dan sat up furiously. 

He dragged in a sharp intake of air when the ghost-proof cuffs chocked his attempt to produce a ghostly wail and kept him from trying to go ghost. 

Vlad ignored the guilt and pulled Dan to his feet, pushed him forward to leave the room. Dan growled, but began to walk with Vlad right behind him. 

“Don’t try to run or fight it, Daniel, it’s for your own best,” Vlad warned lowly, “I promise to help you get out of whatever bonds this human or ghost has over you, but first we have to get you out of his reach.” 

Dan listened without a word and grabbed his right thumb in secret. His calm expression remained as he dislocated the finger and moved one to do the same on the other hand. Skulker met them on the staircase with a worried expression. 

“Plasmius, you have to see this –” 

“Not now, Skulker,” Vlad dismissed impatient, “grab my shoulder and let’s get out of this dreaded place. It reeks of death.” 

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you – the entire first floor is filled with human corpses!” 

Vlad gasped when Dan cast the cuffs aside while transforming and with a wicked grin, he blasted both ghosts with an ecto-blast. Vlad barely dodged, he growled furiously and turned ghost to follow the younger halfa’s way out through the ceiling. 

Dan Phantom waited for them above the roof, hovering in the air with a cold expression and crossed arms. 

Plasmius narrowed his eyes by the sight of the grim reaper attire and lifted himself to hang in front of the other with Skulker right behind him. 

“Daniel, stop this! If you don’t follow me this instant I will beat you unconscious if I have to,” Vlad warned and Skulker backed him up by unfolding his shoulder guns and rockets. 

Dan stared them down solemnly, “I suppose out of respect for our past, I should let the two of you leave this place unharmed.” 

Skulker gasped when Dan suddenly moved like lightning to hover right in front of him and grabbed him by the neck. 

“But that's not how I _work._ ” 

The ecto-strike send the hunter flying and Skulker cried out on his way to the ground. Dan turned around with a crazy grin to fire the stolen rocket at Vlad. The rocket missed Vlad by an inch and he shot forward with a fist power by energy. 

Dan groaned by the hit in his guts and headbutted Vlad with a growl. Vlad hissed and send a blast for Daniel’s head, but the other dodged and phased through him to hit him in the back. 

Skulker returned with a net and Dan bared his fangs in a furious sneer and broke the electroshocking net by curling up and releasing a powerful repulsion field. He jumped into a portal with dark glee and return from a new portal right behind Skulker. 

The hunter whirled around to receive a blast in the face. 

“Daniel!” Vlad scolded and flew up to him, while Skulker fell to the ground for a second time, “I’m _warning_ you!” 

“Oh please,” Dan mocked and placed a hand on his own chest with a grin, “as if you could ever hope to control someone like me, cheeshead. I am stronger than ever and you don’t have any more _humans_ to threaten me with.” 

Vlad clenched his teeth and caught sight of the crowd of people that had gathered around the ruins of the restaurant below them. Vlad spotted a woman with a child and shoot down to grab the infant. 

The French woman cried out as her child was ripped from her arms and Vlad returned to hover in front of the unimpressed Dan with the screaming baby. 

He held the baby out by the cloth it had been wrapped in and made the other hand flare with pink energy. 

“Come with me now, or the child dies,” he stated slowly and ignored the infant’s cries for its mother. 

Skulker returned to his side with a dented face and both stared down the hooded halfa. Dan stared back at them with a grave expression…and then laughed as he raised his hand. 

A green light made the dark night light up for a split second. 

Blood sprayed the right side of Vlad’s face and he turned his head slowly in shock. 

The baby had gone silent and limp in the smoking cloth. A green and red smear where the head had been just a second earlier. 

The mother’s scream mixed with the crazy crackled coming from the laughing halfa and both Skulker and Vlad stared at him in silent horror. 

Dan continued to laugh and send them a jeering look, “what kind of ghost are you two anyway? You threat and use humans every second of your existent to get your ways, but as soon as it gets a little bloody you back out with fright!” 

Vlad felt his insides squirm and the cloth slipped out of his hand. 

Dan had slowly been drifting back to the flat roof of the restaurant and in the dark of the night the impaled bodies of men, women and children hang silently from spikes fused into the roof’s ground. 

Dan landed among them and caressed the cheek of a little girl. 

“Do you see now? There’s no human to tie me down anymore. I have finally freed myself from all living bonds.” 

Vlad’s insides twisted by the haunting sight of his little halfa amongst the corpses of innocent and felt his heart bleed. 

He shook his head and uttered quietly, “this isn’t you…” 

The dark halfa just smiled. A group of circus-clad ghosts landed behind him on the roof and a scarecrow looking man in a long black coat placed his hand on the halfa’s shoulder with a wicked grin. 

“Oh, on the contrary, it’s all him,” the little evil-looking man assured and patted the half-ghost proudly like a good dog, “nice little thing I got here, right? Makes all my other minions look like little kittens.” 

Vlad’s eyes widened and the anger turned his voice into a dangerous sneer, “you – you did this to him? What have you _**done!?**_ ” 

The ringmaster pointed to himself mockingly, “me? I only took a little control of his brain, the whole bloodlust killing and depravity thing? That’s all him. My staff doesn’t turn ghosts’ evil, it only wakes the darkness in them and make them succumb to my demands.” 

The pale man grinned and leaned against Dan like he was nothing but a piece of furniture. Vlad didn’t know if it enraged him more to see the man touch and treat Daniel like this – or the fact that the halfa didn’t show any signs of being bothered by it. 

He just kept on grinning. 

“And I must say,” the human continued with a mocking look, “this poor young man sure has some luggage to carry. Enslaved as a mere child into sex and power? What kind of man would do such an atrocity!?” 

The ringmaster acted like he had to pounder and the snapped his finger, pointing to Vlad with a laughter, “well, you I suppose.” 

Vlad lost it and his entire body began shaking with wrath, “you filthy scumbag son of a bitch! Get your hands of him or I’ll phase out your intestines for you to eat!” 

Freakshow scowled, “I’l punish you for that, but first! – join the dark side.” 

Vlad send the ball at the end of the staff a look of confusion, but then lost all mind function. Skulker widened his eyes and grabbed Plasmius, before activating one of his shoulder rockets. Freakshow cried out in surprise and Lydia pulled him into cover. 

The rockets hit the roof and exploded, sending the impaled bodies flying like parts down the building’s side and made the rest burn up where they hung. 

Plasmius shook his head disorientated and looked up at Skulker in confusion, “w-what? What just…?” 

“He controls ghosts with his staff,” Skulker warned severely, “he’s a ghost-whisper. I’ve meet one like him once – you can’t look into that crystal!” 

Vlad blinked, all the puzzles coming together and he send the hunter a glance, “then care to explain why you wasn’t affected?” 

Skulker knocked on his dented head, making it rung metallic, “my eyes and mind is shielded behind the helmet’s protection and defecting glass. I had it made specific for the purpose. I can’t get hypnotized – but you can. Take the whelp and get him under control – try talk to him and remind him of who he is – in some cases that can break the spell. Just get him under control while I take care of these freaks.” 

Vlad saw more than one flaw in that strategy, but without a batter plan he held his tongue and teleported. Freakshow and his ghosts rose from the ashes on the street below and the ringmaster searched the air for ghosts with clenched teeth. 

He turned to Dan with seething eyes, “find them and bring them to me. No ghost escapes the power of my staff – no one!” Vlad challenged that statement by appearing out of the air behind Dan and teleported them away with a snap. Freakshow cried out in rage and Lydia jumped him to use her body as protection, as a second rocket blew up the pavement. 

Vlad and Dan popped out of the air five streets from the fight and Vlad opened his mouth to try talking some sense into the head of Daniel’s, when a ecto-blast hit him first. 

Vlad hit the ground and Dan grinned down at him, “plans of leaving already? You know, as much as I would love to celebrate this little touching reunion with you, I have my own planes and I can’t let you get in the way of them.” 

Vlad picked himself up and scowled, “taking orders like some mindless drone from that pathetic human is no profession anyone should be proud of, my boy. You will be thanking me when I break that spell of his.” 

“You don’t get it, do you?” Dan sneered and then bared his fangs in a cunning smirk, “the only one here being controlled is the ringmaster himself. I might be bound by his staff and forced to do his orders and ten years back, I might have been nothing but a drone – but things have _changed_. The ringmaster has gone soft, become old. Forgetful. He might not know, but he leaves loopholes in his commands everywhere and that staff of his is slowly cracking. All I need to do is wait and collect.” 

Vlad had listened without a word and his frown deepened, “the pages. You’re are waiting for him to finish collecting them.” 

Dan chuckled, “join me, Vlad. You and I are the only ones to fully understand the pages importance – the power of Sojourn’s Journal. With you by my side, we could rule the Ghost Zone and earth like kings. Like gods! Imagine, a world inhabited by ghosts, ruled by the undead and the humans in chains where they belong.” 

“Last time we spoke you wanted the pages burned,” Vlad retorted quietly and moved up to the younger halfa, “last time I saw you, you were heavy with guilt and cried for a human who had tried to kill you. You wanted to die for a city of humans that barely knew you, hardly even loved you.” 

Dan scoffed, “the staff made me see clearly. The dark side cleanses all. It will cleanse you to.” 

Vlad had heard enough and grabbed the younger man’s shoulders to shake him violently. 

“Snap out of it, Daniel. You’re under a spell!” he jelled and slapped the man across the cheek, “this isn’t you, I know you’re somewhere in there – I know you!” 

Vlad knew he sounded desperate, but didn’t care. This wasn’t the Daniel he loved and adored. 

The Daniel he knew had been replaced by some hellish shell. Had taken the body of his badger and filled it with nothing but empty darkness that held no life, happiness or laughter. 

The face of the empty and lifeless Daniel he had meet in prison made Vlad clench his eyes in pain and the years of regret threatened to tear him apart at the seams. 

Dan crackled by the sight of his suffering and shook his head in mild amusement, “you know nothing about me, old man. The kid you search for is dead. There is nothing but this. But me. But death.” 

Vlad refused to listen and grabbed the grinning halfa’s face with desperation, remembered Skulker’s words of trying to get to the other by words, “listen to me, Daniel. I know this isn’t you. You’re somewhere in there and I know you can hear me. Fight this. I know you.” 

“You know nothing –” Dan protested, but Vlad wouldn’t let him. 

“I know you care, Daniel. That you care for others and time and time again have sacrificed yourself for stranger that doesn’t owe you nothing – but you keep on helping others for the sake of what is right, naïve and ridicules as it is. I know you can’t stand to be caged and that you’ll die inside if you can’t stretch your wings and fly in the sky at night. I know that you loved that Manson woman and that her love-games hurt you, that it broke something in you to lose Miss. McLain and bee forced to leave your friends and family behind you more than ones.” 

Dan’s expression showed no recognition of these things and Vlad stared sorrowful into those lifeless red eyes and spoke softly, “I know you can only find it in you to study when the topic interests you, that you can’t stand tomatoes in your food and that you have no fashion sense. You’ve always wanted an owl, but don’t know how to take care of one. You can’t get control of your hair and most night you get cold because you keep kicking of the sheets. You always take the easy way out and you improvise at the worst of time – but you always make it and you never back down from a fight. You never backed down when I hurt you and you never stopped hating me with that cold fire of yours…” 

Dan’s cold features hadn’t changed and Vlad traced his chin with a thumb, tried to find the halfa he loved in those cold red eyes of this monster, “and I can’t stop loving you for it. I know you can hear me, Daniel. I know you…You’re a hero, Danny Phantom.” 

A dark laughter bubbled in Dan’s chest and he removed Vlad’s hand without a care. 

“Oh, rest your breath, old man,” he sneered mockingly, “a _hero?_ Please. Danny Fenton was a weak little fool, all that caring and love was nothing but a bother that only got him beaten up for nothing. So disgustingly caring and compassionate. Wanted to play hero and help people like some airheaded little boy scout. Holding himself back and reject the power right in front of him.” 

He made a face of disgust and poked Vlad’s chest with a growl, “all that goodness never got him anywhere and all it did was eating him up and filling his head with death wishes! He cared to much, even for you to some pathetic distinct and that was the end of him. You killed him long before the spell finished your work. Acknowledge it – he’s dead.” 

Vlad gritted his teeth, “no. It’s just the spell talking. I can still save him and undo the past.” 

Dan narrowed his eyes, “you can’t undo what already done, old man. There’s nothing for you to find here. What makes you think you can change my past? My future?” 

Vlad felt the hope in him weakening, but like the other halfa, Vlad had always been a stubborn soul. 

He forced down the urge to kill the monster before him and found the will in him to stand his ground. Everyone said his badger had died along time ago, but he knew better. 

He knew that cold flame. 

He knew Daniel. 

He glared up at the man that caged the soul of his soulmate and sneered, “because I love you.” 

Dan broke down into a maniac laughter, filling the street with its sound like a curse and he grabbed his own head in amusement, “oh, you are such an idiot! You _love_ me?” 

Vlad cried out from the powerful blast in his chest and a long drench was carved in the pavement as he slid down the street from the impact. Dan followed him grinningly with slow strides and Vlad threw up a shield to deflect the next series of blasts. 

Dan smashed his shield with a power strike and moved closer to hit him with a new strike. 

“You make no sense, Vlad,” he drawled and dodged the ecto-disk Vlad send at him, “wasn’t this what you’d hoped for me?” 

Vlad lounged forward with a fist, but Dan grab it and punched him in the guts. Threw him of him and send the man flying with a ghost-ray. 

“To become strong?” 

Vlad formed his ghost-stinger and wiped it at Dan, but he grabbed the end of it and turned it green with his ectoplasm. Swung it back and shocked Vlad’s hand. 

“To become powerful?” 

Vlad groaned and clutched his burned hand to him. Dan kicked his face to the right and Vlad rolled helplessness before he finally stopped and fought to get back up. 

A group of humans ran from their hideouts to get away from the scene and Dan send ecto-disks after them. The disks sliced them to bloody pieces of meat, filling the ally with blood. 

Their mauled bodies joining the already decayed corpses of falling soldier hiding and peeking out from the ruins around them. 

“To become merciless?” Dan asked accusingly and seized Vlad by the neck with anger. 

Vlad grabbed the hand with a hiss and electricity sparked to life. Dan released him with a grunt by the electroshock and kicked him to the ground. 

Vlad coughed and spat a mix of ectoplasm and blood, tried to get back up, but fell again when his broken ribs poked his unprotected organs. Dan scoffed by the sight and loomed above the kneeling halfa with a questioning face. 

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you proud of what I’ve become?” Dan asked cruelly and a fanged smile suddenly bloomed on his face, “aren’t you proud of your _son?_ ” 

The words snapped something within Vlad and it took him a long time to understand that it was his heart. 

The words he had once craved to hear before his feeling for the boy had changed, made his heart stop and its inside crack into splinters. All feeling inside of him broke and he could nothing but stare at the monster before him…the monster he had created. 

For the first time in his life, Vlad came to terms with the consequences of his own actions. Recognized fully what he’d caused and came to hate himself for it. This wasn’t a spell or stranger talking through Daniel’s mouth. 

This was his doing, his creation, all his. His son. 

His reflection. 

Tears ran down his cheeks and dripped to the pavement where the blood of Phantoms’ victims had collected in puddles. Joined the despair and death that was the man, who had once been a hero and called himself by a childish nickname. 

They were right. Daniel…Danny…was no more. 

The tears seemed to bore Dan and he lifted a hand to Vlad’s unmoving head. Ecto-energy collecting in the open palm and loading to high concentration right in front of the unmoving man’s face. 

“Well, that's it, isn't it?” Dan asked quietly and took in the sight of his kneeling nemesis one last time.

   
 

Back at the fight, Skulker had used up all his weapons and moved on to use ecto-energy. 

Angry that his staff held no power over this metal-ghost, Freakshow wielded his staff around in a hysterical fit and yelled at his ghosts to finish the job already! 

One of the ghosts came to close to him and by accident, Freakshow knocked the crystal ball into the unfortunate – or fortunate – ghost’s forehead. 

The fragile ball held together by nothing but old glue and luck, shattered into a million pieces and the light inside it disappeared.

   
 

Vlad’s eyes widened as the grin and red hue left the young halfa’s eyes like mist. 

The brilliant emerald green returned with the same cleanness as the reflection of a diamond. Danny blinked confused and the energy in his hands vanished as he sank to his knees with a painful groan. 

Vlad reached a hand forward slowly, afraid that if he moved to fast he would break something or destroy the man. Danny clutched his head with scrunched eyes and whimpered, not knowing what was happening or where he was. 

“Daniel.” 

Danny groaned. He recognized the voice, but all the information he knew about it came back to fast and the pain of seventeen year’s neglected memories threatened to split his head in half. 

He opened his eyes to find a dirty and badly beaten Vlad Plasmius kneeling before him and he had to take a second to remember what he was doing in his company. Had they been fighting? And more importantly – had he won? 

Danny looked around in confusion and his breath stopped along with his heart. 

Blood filled every crack of the world around him. Corpses of people laid scattered around him in brutal patterns only a madman would find beauty in. 

Intestines and chopped limps seemed to creep closer to him and he whimpered by the sight of a little boy sliced in half. Two blue eyes looking blankly into his. A fly landing on one of them. 

The sudden knowledge that this was his doing made Danny shake. 

People… _so many people_. 

The memories of the strong pictures of his own doing over the years came back to him like needles piercing through his skin and he saw the blurry faces of all the children he had once overshadowed. 

His scream tore through him and shut out all sounds around him, but no sound or outside element could shut out the memories he now carried in his mind and heart. 

Vlad knew he had to do something and tried grabbing Danny’s hand to stop them from clawing at his own face, but Danny pushed him of him in pure fear and began to run. Vlad yelled at him, but Danny didn’t hear, didn’t see, didn’t stop. 

He only ran. Knew that he had to escape these images and this guilts. These unforgivable things he had done with glee and these horrible acts he had committed with a smile on his face. 

The ruins and bodies around him was the reflection of his mind and he stumbled through them in blind flight, blind fear and blind hope of getting out of the hell he had built on bones and exposed spines. 

Someone was following him and in this insanity, that had gripped his heart, Danny believed it to be his evil self chasing him and he did the last thing he could come up with. 

He formed a portal. 

“Daniel, _no!_ ” Vlad shouted and shot forward. 

Danny jumped through the green portal and the green circle closed behind him. Vlad slammed his fists against the brick wall a second to late and left two deep craters in the surface. He stared into it with heavy breath and howled into the air. 

He had lost Daniel. 

Again. 

Skulker waited for Plasmius to end his raging fit, having seen it a couple of times before and funny enough, it always came after a fight with the other halfa. 

Plasmius finally calmed down and Skulker hovered up to him and threw the bloody ringmaster before his feet. Vlad turned slowly and stared down at the human. 

The human that had taking Daniel from him. 

The human that had controlled and hurt Daniel for seventeen years. 

Freakshow put up his hands in surrender and smiled nervously, “uhm, hey now. Let’s make a deal, yes? I give you all the pages I’ve collected for the Germans and you let me live, so I can lead you to the box they keep them in. Then everyone gets what they want and you and I can part without any bad blood. Right? You want the pages, right? That’s what Dan said, such a good boy, such a good ghost. Really –” 

Vlad killed the man’s rant by locking his hand around his neck and pulled him to his face. 

“You like ghosts?” he asked lowly with bared fangs and the ringmaster nodded eagerly. 

“Yes! Yes! I simply adore them, always have – My family have used…eh, taken care of them for generations. I know all about them, can’t get enough of them.” 

“I see. Then you’re going to _love_ the Unworld,” Vlad sneered and teleported with the man. 

Skulker shivered as thy vanished, but waited patiently for his boss to return without a word. Plasmius popped out of the air with a huff of green smoke a minute later and Skulker watched as the halfa cracked his neck loudly, his eyes blank and unfocused. 

Clearly somewhere else. 

Skulker cleared his throat cautiously, “shall I go get the pages?” 

Plamius sighed tiredly. He then straightened his pose despite the still healing ribs, dusted himself of and ran a hand through his hair to restyle the two horns. His eyes once again sharp and focused, demeanor cold and collected. 

“Bring Fright Knight with you and go to the circus. The man’s contract to the Nazi party should be able to tell us who to overshadow and question for the page’s exact location.” 

Skulker nodded, glad that his boss hadn’t lost it, “and the whelp?” 

Vlad ran a hand across the brick wall’s smoldering surface with a determinate look, “I will go search for him myself. Meet me at the bunker in two days to get further instructions.” 

Skulker felt his pride hurt a bit, but from the looks of his employer’s grim features, this wasn’t the time to discuss which of them who was the trained hunter and not. 

He handed Plasmius the page the ringmaster had kept on him and uttered firmly, “I know the whelp is important to you, but I hope the hunt for him won’t get in the way of the pages. Or our agreement of my payment as a free passage to the Elsewhereness.” 

Vlad read the page briefly before hiding it in his tunic and he adjusted his attire with a calm voice, “my business with Daniel won’t get in the way of our agreement, Skulker. Even with or without him by my side, I will still be the ruler of the gates of the Elsewhereness. You have nothing to fear.” 

“Skulker fears nothing.” 

“Then get to work,” Vlad replied coldly and teleported into the Ghost Zone.


	34. Danny becomes still in the land of cold and the world goes on without him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> Danny had a cold problem..  
>  _Danny bit his lip, “the things I remember the most is how I suddenly got control over my cold problem. Realized I had to deflect the ice coming from my core, instead of keeping it inside. I remember that day I figured it out pretty clearly and I can recall most of the days that my new personality acted on his own.”_  
>  _“But not all,” Nichols concluded. Danny nodded._  
>  _“There’s a lot of holes in that time I don’t remember and something tells me I don’t wanna know either.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And his cross-over powers may lead to an evil place...  
>  _“Don’t tell me you never asked yourself where your powers lead the ghosts you make cross over to, Daniel,” Vlad chuckled, “when my powers teleported me to the Unworld the first time, I took some time to examine the place, don’t tell me you never looked through your own portal when leading ghosts into it?”_  
>  _Danny felt the blood leave his face. Was Vlad serious? He could teleport to such a place with his powers? And Danny could open a portal to –_  
>  _“No way!” Danny blurt out repulsed, “there’s no way my powers leads to some hell for ghosts – that makes no sense! Why would my powers open up to such a place? It easy to guess why in your case, since you’re an evil cheesehead – but me? I help ghosts when they cross over!”_  
>  _“Isn’t it obvious? We’re only half-ghosts, Daniel, half-dead, powerful, and yet not belonging anywhere, but the thin line of both the world of living and dead. Is it so hard to believe that if anyone should guard the gateways to a world neither ghost or human can survive in, it would be the creatures that’s the very essence of it?”_
> 
> But despite how many times Danny fail, the ones closests to him have always belived in him  
>  _“Daniel, I want you to listen to me and listen closely,” he enunciated low and sternly, not giving any room for interruption, “the man you killed behind Miss. McLain’s building had more than one hundred arson cases behind him, having run from state to state without being caught. He was a dangerous and maniac individual that would have meet his maker in the chair nevertheless. You have nothing to feel guilty about and no reason to trouble your conscious like this. You did the right thing and now Miss. McLain can rest in peace.”_
> 
> _“I don’t want you to feel like a failure just because our relationship didn’t work out,” Sam said and send him a glance he chose not to take as pitiful, “take a break from all this self-loathing, would you? You don’t have to give up on a future because of your past."_
> 
>  
> 
> _"You’re my best friend after all and we’ll always have each other’s back,” Tucker noted and made gesture for them to move, “come on, I drive you home like I promised.”_
> 
>  
> 
> _Jazz noted his distressed demeanor and took his hand, “the war will end, Danny and you will be able to go where you want and do as you please, but I’ll just like you to know that I will miss you dearly, little brother. I know I can be kind of hard on you, but you know I think you're great, right?”_
> 
>  
> 
> _Danny shifted ear and rubbed his eyes, "try and leave without him noticing and stay around people – and don't go home. I'll be there before you know it."_  
>  _"Alright, Danny. I see you there," Kemberly retorted happily and ended the call._
> 
>  
> 
> But now it's time for Danny to stand without them...  
>  _The ruins and bodies around him was the reflection of his mind and he stumbled through them in blind flight, blind fear and blind hope of getting out of the hell he had built on bones and exposed spines. Someone was following him and in this insanity, that had gripped his heart, Danny believed it to be his evil self chasing him and he did the last thing he could come up with._  
>  _He formed a portal._  
>  _“Daniel, no!” Vlad shouted and shot forward. Danny jumped through the green portal and the green circle closed behind him. Vlad slammed his fists against the brick wall a second to late and left two deep craters in the surface. He stared into it with heavy breath and howled into the air._  
>  _He had lost Daniel._  
>  _Again._
> 
> * * *
> 
> hey you wonderful brilliant people :D  
> it's time for another over dramatic and unnecessary emotional chapter about Danny dealing with his shit and feelings :D excited?  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it.
> 
> * * *

_Year 1944, somewhere near the Far Frozen, the Ghost Zone_

Danny's mind had turned numb. 

The overload of clear and unclear memories and impressions shoot through his head with the same gentleness, as knives through paper and left him in a black hole of horror, confusion, shame, and anxiety. 

To make it worse, something had gone completely wrong with his core. Danny tried to get his teeth to stop chattering and get his shaking limbs under control. 

The cold that had bothered him for years had suddenly returned tenfold the second he returned from the land of unconsciousness and the vague memories of having gained some sort of control nagged the back of his mind. 

Freakshow had ordered him to stop shaking in the winter and that seemed to have opened up something in Danny…Dan. But now that he wasn’t under the spell’s control… 

He suddenly recalled something about wrecking a street with ice and pushed back the memory, when the following images of impaled officers followed suit. 

The tears froze on his cheeks and Danny hugged his shaking arms, half aware of the frost that had started to cover his grim reaper cloak and black battle suit. The sudden need to rip of the cloak came over him, but he kept it in the end. 

He would surely freeze to death without it. What it stood for didn’t matter at the moment. 

He continued his slow drifting through the Ghost Zone and watched as the few ectopuses and smaller ghosts fled when he got to close, while those who didn't, got covered in ice from his radiating core. 

Danny closed his eyes and tried staying calm. He couldn’t tell how long he had drifted around like this or how deep into the zone he had strayed, but since Vlad hadn't showed himself, Danny would guess he had strayed deep enough. 

The image of Vlad's tear stained face returned to him and Danny scrunched his eyes together. Disappointing or angering Vlad had never been anything new to Danny or something he had cared about. 

For many years, he had tried his best to hurt the man as much as possible and wound him as deep as himself – but this? 

Something strongly resembling regret made him lose his breath and Danny curled in on himself with the overwhelming feeling of guilt. 

He didn't want to feel that way, wanted to tell himself that Vlad deserved it, deserved having his heart broken and illusions shuddered. See for himself what the dark path had turned Danny into. 

The hate against the man faded just as fast as it had formed. Despite everything, not even Vlad deserved to witness the thing Danny had turned into. 

No one did and most of all himself. 

A cold wind swept past him and Danny opened his tired eyes in confusion. A strange tube of ice and white clusters of snow turned up ahead, the stark color almost to disturbingly bright to exist in this gloomy green world. 

It seemed to lead to some giant lair of snowclad mountains and ice. Danny's core vibrated and he held the slow course, despite the pain and the coldness this place inflicted him. 

He descended into the enormous tube of hollowed out ice and blinked as snow began to fall around him. The halfa shook painfully and hugged himself tighter. 

He soon lost the last energy and fell the rest of the way down. Several stores of ice passed him by and he landed a bit clumsy on his weak legs and collapsed into the waist deep snow. Looked around for any sign of explanation. 

Why had his core led him to this godforsaken wasteland? 

The vast winter land inside the ice tube gave him no answer other than the push of the howling wind and Danny pulled the crisp cloak around him. His lips turning blue and his fangs numb. 

His tongue swept past the two sharp canines. Couldn't recall when exactly he had developed them, but he guessed it had something to do with the dark turn of his ghost-half. 

His experience with different types of ghost had taught him that, the more malicious minded specters would change over time and their appearance turn more animalistic or demonic. 

The most harmless of ghosts and weaker ones, would remain formless and green without any humanoid features, while the more average and friendly minded ghosts kept their appearance from when they died and could walk amongst humans almost undetected by most. 

As soon as a ghost became stronger or succumbed to their obsessions completely, they would begin to change to a darker core wave and their appearance become inhuman. 

Danny didn't have a mirror on him, but something told him that he had regained his normal green eye color. He could only hope that his teeth would turn back blunt again, now that he had turned away from his dark path and he massaged his numb ears. 

Wait…when had his ears turned pointy? 

A growl made him snap out of his troubled thoughts and his eyes widened to the sight before him. 

As a child, Danny had taken a likening to stories like tales and fables about monster, as he himself had come to understand with age that he belonged in that category of creatures. 

The stories of sight from the Himalayas had always intrigued him and in the winter when the snow had covered London, he and Youngblood would play adventures in the cold snow-clad mountains and fought the bloodthirsty yetis that was said to live there. 

The descriptions and pictures of the yeti had been never scared Danny as a child, but the monster before him now was something to horrifying to behold. 

The white beast roared at him and loomed over like some strange, if not forbidden lovechild of a lion and polar bear. It was clearly ghostly, but Danny had never seen a specter like this before. 

The blue cape and gold-plated clothing decorated with blue jewels could indicate that the yeti was in some way intelligent, civil even, but the bloodthirsty look in its eyes and bared fangs told another story. 

"Alright, let-ts t-t-talk about this," Danny tried in a calm voice, shaking from clacking teeth the yeti jumped forward. 

Danny shrieked in surprise and leaped out of the way, blinked in shock when something looking like a skeleton arm covered in clear ice lashed out after him. Despite the condition of its arm, the yeti seem fully functional and not the least hurt. 

“Wait! I don’t want ya territory! I’m not here to fight!” ” Danny tried and dodged the beast’s eye beams. 

He knew he was too weak to fight this thing and decided it was time to leave this place. And that fast. He shot for the air, but was almost choked to death, when the yeti caught his cloak with a claw and dragged him back down. 

Danny fought to get the cloak of him in panic and then remembered he could just use intangibility and phased out of the damned thing. The beast turned the black fabric to sheds and send Danny flying with a hit, as he was to slow and too tired to move in time. 

He had barely hit the snow, before the yeti came back right at him and Danny threw his shaking arms up. His ecto-blast released from his hands by sheer reflex, send the white yeti back into a snow-covered boulder and the impact shook the clusters of huge icicles above it. 

The beast looked up as the ice came down and stabbed into the snow like bars around him. Caging him effectively. 

Danny had for a second feared that the icicles would stab the creature to death or wound it in some way and he let out a shaking sigh now that the danger was over. The last he needed was to kill a wounded yeti out of pity or have more blood on his hands. 

He immediately committed the mistake of looking down at his hands and gasped before hiding them. They were still covered in blood. Human blood. 

“Oh god,” Danny whispered and tried to wash them clean in the snow, only to find the snow turning pink from his efforts. He continued anyway and ignored the roaring beast trying to get free from its prison, as he increased the attempt to wash himself of his evil self’s actions. 

The last feeling in his fingers disappeared with the feeling of his feet and back, and Danny looked around for his cloak, only to spot the puny shreds that was left of it in the snow. 

The cold was becoming to unbearable and Danny hugged himself like a shaking mess. What now? 

His eyes darted to the raging yeti and he stood on shaking legs to faced it. The yeti growled by that and stared back at him with yellow eyes and foaming mouth. Danny lifted his hand to point a finger at it and tried calling some of his powers to his hand. 

A green light formed at the tip of his finger and he held the yeti’s stare in what he hoped was determination. 

“It’s nothing personal,” Danny tried to convince himself more than the beast, “I’m too weak to fly and I can’t have you hunting me down like this. And I can’t leave you helpless either – you’ll just starve to death and be miserable, or taken by some other bigger ice-monster…or something…” 

Despite the warmth of the ectoplasma running through his arm, the hand started shaking again, but for more reasons than just the cold. The yeti growled again and tried it’s best to get out with teeth and claws and Danny felt the tears form and freeze in the corner of his eyes. 

“Don’t you get it!” he yelled in anger and forced himself to become like stone, “I can’t let you out and I can’t leave you – you’ll just hurt me the second I turn my back on you and then I will have to kill you anyway! And I don’t want to! That’s not who I am!” 

One of the icicles shook and Danny caught his own reflection in its surface. And froze. 

_End him_ , Dan’s voice ordered in his head, as well as with the lips of the reflection. The red eyes burned with bloodlust and the fresh stains of blood and ectoplasm still coated his face and the white hair. 

Danny pressed his hands to his face in a childish attempt to hide from him and stayed that way for what felt like hours, before he slowly removed his hands from his face and checked his reflection again. 

He was still covered in other’s blood and Vlad’s ectoplasm. Still pale and the lips blue from cold. His face still older and not entirely his own as of yet, but the eyes where still his own. Green. Not red. 

“That’s not who I am,” he whispered to himself and turned around to leave as fast as possible, “I’m sorry. I can’t do it.” 

He had barely gotten a few feet away, before the alarming sound of splintering ice made him turn around again and that in time to see an icicle coming at his face like a spear. Danny barely blasted it and watched his hands sizzle weakly. He was almost out of juice. 

The yeti shot the formation of snow above Danny and he threw up his arms when it all came tumbling down on top of him. Burry him deep in snow. 

Danny groaned from his half-made snow grave and cried out when the ice-covered hand grabbed him. He struggled to get out of the yeti’s hold and was yanked up to the ghost beast’s face. 

"Arg! No! No please, I want to live!" Danny screamed, as he struggled and tried to get away from the large clawed paw coming for him, "I have to make things right! I need more time!" 

The sight of something looking like a huge thorn deep in the yeti’s neck, made him stop his struggles and think, “what the?” 

The story of Androcles and the lion suddenly returned to him from the memories of boarding school and with that a strange memory of a street filled with impaled policemen. 

A glimpse of himself frenching Vlad made Danny shake his head in terror and confusion and he took the best and only chance he had. 

His head split into two to evade the claw and he used up his very last ecto-energy to shoot the ice thorn with a little ray from his finger. The thorn was separated from the monster's flesh and the yeti howled, before it released him instantly. 

Its yellow and purple eyes widened and a thundering laughter filled the air, “the pain? It’s gone!” 

Danny dropped down into the snow and tried to get back up, but without the cloak he had gotten to cold, to tired and too weak to fight. 

The overwhelming need to rest and close his eyes for a bit finally won and he closed his tired eyes to the feeling of getting lifted into a fuzzy warm chest.

   
 

_Jazz’s red hair burned with the same intensity as fire in the otherwise grayish room and Danny tried reading the title of the book hiding her face, but failed._

_Simply too young to understand the complex words she seemed so fond of._

_She looked over the edge of the tome. Her nightgown covering the long legs she had pulled to her chest, as she sat there in the windowsill. The snow falling like cotton outside the glass._

_“Couldn’t sleep?”_

_Danny nodded and the eight-year-old made room for her little brother. Shared her little warm with him in the cold mansion, they had moved into a few weeks back._

_“Mom scared Youngblood away again,” Danny sudden said, broke the soft silence. Jazz flipped a page in her book, scanned the words without problem and sighed._

_“He is not real. Stop bugging mom and go play with the real boys instead.”_

_“Youngblood is real,” Danny defended stubbornly, “you just can’t see him because you are stupid.”_

_Jazz send him a sour look, “go back to bed, Danny.”_

_“Don’t want to,” Danny whispered and little tears formed in his blue eyes, “my bed smells weird and it’s too big. I feel cold in it.”_

_His older sister’s expression turned softer and she closed the book, before taking his hand. Leading him to her own bed. She tugged him in beneath the covers next to her teddy Bearbert Einstein and hugged him close to keep him warm._

_Danny clung to her, felt as if she and his mother was the only solid things in this world. The mansion was like a grey maze. The chandelier dusty and most of the room’s furniture had been covered in white sheets._

_The snow outside only adding to the grey and dusty atmosphere. The world of cold grey shades and frozen glass._

_“I want to go home,” Danny sobbed and Jazz’s eyes hardened. Making her look like their mother._

_“We don’t have a home, little brother. We only have ourselves now.”_

Danny's eyes snapped open and he stared into the clear glass reflecting his own face. 

The feeling of weightlessness got him to move his limbs and he soon came to understand he was inside a glass tank. 

The strange transparent liquid made everything seem green around him and he touched the helmed around his head, followed the hoses with his hands. 

He was still alive. 

"Oh, you're awake, great one." 

Danny stopped his exploring and turned his head to the yeti behind the glass pane. He recognized the yeti due to the skeleton arm and it smiled back at him with a clear – if not over friendly expression. 

He was even standing upright like a human now and so did all the other yetis working at the room's machinery around the tank. Danny blinked befuddled. 

"Well this wasn't how I imagines Santa’s workshop," Danny joked weakly in dark humor, more than expecting the monsters to begin cooking him or proclaim they were to begin dissecting him. 

Everything hinted that he would soon wish he was dead and he dreaded for what these creatures had in store for him. Why had he even whished to live in the first place? 

He blinked confused as the yeti cracked an honest smile. 

"I see you are of good health. Me and my people have tended to your care for a couple of hours now, oh great one. It is the least we can do for the savior of the Ghost Zone," the yeti said and bowed humbled with the others rushing over to do the same, “I am Frostbite, leader of the Far Frozen and this village. Your humble servant.” 

Danny blinked a bit dumbstrucked. The situation had already gotten too far out of hand for him to grasp and he decided he might as well just play along till they finally dropped the act and skinned him alive. 

Danny chuckled awkward in his own creeping insanity, “heh, heh, uhm...I, okay...nice one – wait did you say, ‘Savior of the Ghost Zone’? As in…me?” 

“Of course!” Frostbite bellowed enthusiastic with that rolling accent of his, “and it is our honor to be your host. A grand feast will be in your honor!” 

Danny had no words, everything going a bit too fast for even a speed lover like him and he swam to the glass, tried to get the helmet of him. If he could trick them to get him out of this thing he would have a better chance to escape. 

_But I thought you wanted to die?_ Dan chuckled and Danny forced himself not to answer openly and concentrate on the yetis. 

“Hey, now just wait a minute, not so fast. Where am I, the Far Frozen? What is that even? Where are my clothes!?” 

Danny hurried to cover himself and his underwear. Frostbite's pleasant and formal demeanor turned a notch up and he gave one of the yetis a signal. 

“This is a medical facility in the realm of the Far Frozen and you are floating in a de-icing chamber. Your clothes are in the wash. Very dark for a savior I must say. I’m afraid your cloak couldn’t be saved, so I had a new one made for you.” 

A yeti turned to the tank and showed him a white cloak with a wide smile – he realized it was an older female. And probably the one making the cloak for him. 

“That’s nice,” Danny replied slowly. 

He knew generosity could be a way to make others more trusting and wasn’t going to fall for it. 

This was way to cheery a scene for him and he almost wanted to be back in the snow where he knew what the cold wanted without having to fear being lead into a trap by smiling faces and hospitality. 

One the other hand, something could seem that these ghosts had him confused with some ‘savior’ of theirs and maybe he could exploit that to escape. His ice powers had lead him here for a reason after all. 

He tapped his helmed with a finger and tried to remain calm for the show, , “but that doesn’t really explain anything. I’m pretty sure I should be dead by now, anyway – the cold sensation led me here for some reason, you know why?” 

“It’s the call of the ghostly ice that called you home, great one,” Frostbite exclaimed with a sudden severity and pointed to Danny’s chest, “your central core reading indicates extreme cold. As if your body is self-generating it. I sensed it within you after you fell unconscious in my arms. You were very close to death, yes. It was lucky for us all that you trusted in the call of your core and found us.” 

Danny swallowed thickly, still feeling the cold inside of him, although stabilized by whatever futuristic technology these ghost-yetis seemed to possess. 

“Self-generating? You’re telling me my core is out of control? Where is that cold coming from exactly?” 

“The cold?” Frostbite asked surprised, “but, my dear savior, the cold is no outside phenomena – it is your element. Your ghostly center. The ice is part of you, you just need to learn how to control it.” 

“Really?” Danny asked a bit surprised and forgot for a second that he needed to run and find a place to hide from the last 17 years stock of memory, “but how is that possible?” 

The yetis seemed deeply amused by him and Frostbite watched him as the rest began to help him out of the tank. 

“You become invisible, pass through solid object, and emit beams of energy from your hands and you ask, ‘how is this possible’? You’re a halfa, great one, there’re is nothing that’s not possible for the legendary likes of you.” 

Danny turned intangible to get the green jelly of him and accepted the now cleaned and fresh battle suit, and put on the white cloak. Already feeling the cold sneak in on him, now that he was out of the secure tank. 

“Then please teach me,” Danny pleaded, “I can’t stand being this cold anymore. It’s been causing me troubles for years!” 

“All in due time, great one,” Frostbite promised and Danny yelped as the yetis leveled him up on their shoulders and began to carry him like a king in hast. 

“But first! The grand feat for your honor – the village have been waiting for hours to see you!” 

Danny had no choice but to get carried out and presented to the village. 

He had been exposed to fame before as the ghost medium of New York and gotten used to his share of attention – but nothing could have prepared him from the downright worshipping these ghost-yetis began to shower him in. 

Danny was dumped into the seat of honor by the long table in the village’s great hall and a group of what looked like the elders of the place and Frostbite seated themselves as close to him as possible, while a great deal of young females flocked around his seat to offer him various plates of their cooking. 

Danny tried his best to keep up a somewhat pleasant face, while his inside felt like they had tied themselves into knots. 

All this cheeriness and these heartwarming ghosts was making him sick with anxiety and he couldn’t convince himself if it made him more or less certain that they were going to kill him later or not. 

A whole lot of talking and hand shaking got over Danny’s head faster than he could even help to comprehend and after having been blessed by the oldest yeti with a kiss on both cheeks, Danny lost his patience and took the liberty to grab Frostbite by the skeleton arm. 

“Frostbite, this is all dandy and swell, but I don’t get it,” Danny whispered, “you all keep calling me ‘savior’ and ‘great one’, but what have I done to get those titles again? It can’t be my amazing personality alone, there’s got to be more to it. I’m I to be sacrificed or something?”” 

Frostbite and the ones who had listened in seemed almost scandalized by his question. 

“But, great one!” Frostbite uttered confused, “are you telling us, that you don’t know your own prophesy?” 

“Well…yeah?” Danny said slowly, afraid he might have taken a wrong step here. 

“Then follow me,” the leader of the Far Frozen proclaimed and rose from the table. 

Danny followed him curiously and hugged the white cloak around him as they left the warm cave to cross the village’s snowy square. Frostbite took pity on him and stopped to grab Danny’s shaking shoulders. 

“My apology, I had all forgot about your core. Now lesson one; stop shivering.” 

Danny send him a pleading look, “I-I-I-I c-c-can't. To c-c-cold.” 

“You only feel that way because you insist on keeping the cold inside of you. Having only let it out in small amounts, or in great outlets draining it completely.” 

Danny recalled the time he had frozen Spectra’s body solid and some vague memories of Dan spiking a street with ice. Those were what he would call “great outlets” – but small amount of his ice powers? 

“Like when?” he coughed. 

Frostbite spread out his arms, “every time you sense a ghost nearby. That is basic for all yeti-cubs.” 

Danny almost choked in anger, “ar-are you f-f-f-freaking telling m-me my ghost se-sense has been an i-ice power a-a-all this time!?” 

“Indeed,” Frostbite grinned excited, “and now you must let out all that cold in you – at ones! Concentrate and let it build up inside of you until it had nowhere else to go.” 

Danny sighed tiredly and stopped hugging himself. He might as well try, “a-a-alright. Here g-g-g-goes nothing.” 

He closed his eyes and tried reaching his core. 

The cold was overwhelming and made everything stiffen in icy pain, but Danny forced himself to embrace it. Allow the cold to build up like ecto-energy, rather than deject it like he always had. 

There was limit to what he would do to get this cold sensation under control and finally stop hurting him, but reaching for the cold of his core was almost too much. The feeling stung like little needles of ice and Danny lost his breath. 

He let go of the cold and screamed as a rush of coolness shot through his body and knocked him to his knees. Danny inhaled sharply and felt all his muscles relax and let down his tense guard. 

He let out a sharp laugh, “It worked! I feel normal again. No more cold feeling, no pain, no nothing! Way to go Frostbi –” 

Danny jumped and fell on his rear in shock by the sight of Frostbite’s frozen body. The yeti had lifted a proud thumb to him and Danny pressed his hands to him mouth to kill the scream that was building up. 

_Danny stared up at the ice statue above him, this sculpture who had once been a ghost and his piano teacher. The weight of the solid frozen Penelope Spectra soon became too much for him and as Spectra hit the floor, she shattered into a thousand pieces._

“Oh n-no…” Danny stammered and saw the yetis gather around them in the corner of his eyes. 

What had he done? 

He lifted cautious a hand towards to statue of the smiling yeti, but pulled his hand back in fright. He had just murdered the chief of this village. This village that had shown him nothing but kindness and even gone as far as to insist upon him being their savior. 

This ghost had just freed him of a plague he had suffered for years. Frostbite had just taught him how to control his powers and how had he repaid him? 

With death. 

_That’s what I have been trying to tell you all along,_ Dan whispered like a snake in his ear, _what makes you think you can change me, when we’re the same? You wanted him dead from the second he hurt you –_

“No,” Danny whispered and bowed his head as the yetis surrounded him and laid their shadows on him, “I’m not you. You’re evil…I’m just out of control.” 

“Great one?” 

Danny flinched from the paw on his shoulder and the yeti girl blinked in surprise, before smiling sweetly, “you want to join us for coco in the hall, while the chief if getting thawed?” 

Danny blinked in confusion, still beside himself, “thawed? So you can bury him?” 

She stared for a second before laughing like Danny had told her the best joke of her life, “what? Ha ha aha! Oh no, great one, you’re so funny – I’ll tell him that when he gets his head free of the ice, he’s going to cry from laughter.” 

Danny was still confused as she and the other young yeti girls pulled him from his puny position in the snow and dragged him to the hall for a mug of coco. 

For the next twenty minutes, Danny found himself seated near the fire, surrounded by yeti younglings and watching Frostbite defrost beside the open fire. 

It was probably the most surrealistic experience he had ever encountered, and he spent it drinking coco and eating jerky in a strange tranquility haze, without really tasting anything or remember a word the younglings had said during the waiting for Frostbite to melt. 

Frostbite was soon unhurt, just as cheery as before and was back on his unfrozen feet and and going, while Danny was still way beside himself and followed him without a clue of how to process this strange experience to his brain. 

Frostbite didn’t seem to sense his inner turmoil and simply lead the way to a cave in the middle of the village, while babbling on about some ‘enlightenment’ Danny would get when they got there. 

Danny hadn’t really been listening, to busy trying to figure out if this was real or not and how he was going to live his future life knowing that freezing things didn’t necessary killed them, when they stepped inside the cave and he forgot all about his string of speculations. 

“Is that…me?” he asked and placed a gloved hand on the carvings of the cave wall. 

The engraving of a white painted figure lighted up in the center of a larger pentagram of smaller scenes. Sanding on a white gate, the figure’s eyes shone from the light in the cave and Danny realized it was real emeralds. 

Despite being a simple image without much details, there was no doubt that it was supposed to be Danny. Little bits of his life showed in the pictures surrounding it. He touched the one picturing his fight with Undergrowth. 

Another was with Hotep RA and the time he had helped Dora overthrow her brother, Prince Aragon. 

A ring of green rectangles encircled the white figure and it took Danny a second to realize what they were supposed to be. 

“Sojourn’s pages…” 

“Indeed, great one,” Frostbite nodded and traced the images with a claw, “the ghost known as Sojourn was the one to speak your prophesies millennia ago. As an oracle, he came to our village to seek out the mystery of this place and learn about our stories of the ancient. He learned of our ways, honored our traditions and in return, we taught him the secrets of ice powers. Helped him develop his own core.” 

Danny followed the yeti’s claw and found that the back of the cave had another large image. A green figure in a gold and white cloak. Danny moved closer and his eyes fixated on the book in the figure’s hand instantly. 

An orange cover with a golden eye as symbol. 

“Being an ancient ghost of many elements, he soon mastered the ice and continued on his journey. But before he left, he prophesied that when his reign of existence would come to an end, two bridges of the living and undead world would rise and the gateway to the worlds of beyond would open once again. One of these guardians would be granted an ice core and return to us in his place. A guardian of light and the goodness in all that is human and specter.” 

Frostbite placed his large claw on Danny shoulder and shook him gently, “the halfa and savoir of the Ghost Zone, the light that will lead the way to the Elsewhereness. Protect it from all interties that may seek to use it for evil.” 

Danny didn’t know what to say. His own image and the savior on the wall stared ahead with emerald eyes, hands folded on the little picture of a red heart and blue core on his chest. The image of mercy and greatness. 

Every little scene around him testified some heroic deed he had done in the past, some more insignificant than others, but all shown as important here. 

Frostbite watched him with excitement, “me and my people have waited a long time for this day to come and followed your doings and heroic acts with great interest. Especially the stories of all the ghost you’ve helped to cross over. It is our hope that you might help one of our eldest. She has wished to be helped beyond this world to find peace for decades and waited with outmost patience for you to return to us.” 

Danny’s head snapped to the yeti and he backed out of his grip instantly. 

“What!? – no, no you don’t understand. I kill ghosts when I do that – my cross over powers lead to nothing! To…to…” 

_The Unworld_. 

Memories of the place came back like a crushing wave. Filling him with terror, the darkness, the rot, hands all around him. Reaching to hurt, grabbing to kill, wanting to pull him back down, make him share their misery. 

Make him one of them, them, them, the dead, the hateful, the sorrowful, the hopeless, the dead, dead, dead, dark. 

Dan. 

“But, great one –” 

“Stop calling me that!” Danny yelled and pushed the hand away Frostbite had tried to reach him with, “I’m not great or some savior, all I do is causing trouble and wreck thing whenever I go.” 

Danny cast the cave wall an ashamed look. Turned his back on the bright image. 

“I’m not…I’m not a hero, that's not who I am...anymore,” he finished quietly and went to leave. 

Frostbite looked after the young halfa with worry and send the wall a look of his own. He walked out after Danny and took the torch with him. The green fire passed a pair of ruby eyes for a second. 

Lighted up the last wall where a blue figure with a green heart and red core, his eyes crimsom and standing tall above a dark gate. 

The figure was encircled by a ring of pages as well, but the little stories around him wasn’t light ones, but dark terrible deeds. 

The opposite image of that of the Ghost Zone’s savior. 

Danny stared out into the village. He didn’t feel any cold, but a numbness had grabbed him nevertheless. Frostbite watched him with a confused frown and followed the young halfa’s eyes. 

The Far Frozen stretched wide and shimmering behind the village. The cold lair of the yetis possessed a certain beauty in its own harshness and called to those of its element. 

A gentle smile lifted Frostbite’s frown. 

“Young yetis often leave the village on the border to adulthood and walks into the tundra. The loneliness and peace often bring them closer to themselves and clears the troubled mind.” 

Danny sighed, “it would be for the best if you all just forgot about me. I’m sorry, but I’m not the savoir you’re all waiting for.” 

The yeti just shrugged, “legends are rarely what we want them to be and likewise, it is often said that heroes is a thing to remember, but legends are something that never dies. My people believe you to be a person of both, my friend. But only you will know who you are for certain." 

Danny stubbornly stared into the tundra with a frown, "then I'm like my ice powers. Broken and out of control." 

Frostbite chuckled, "now be mindful – you control the power, it does not control you." 

Danny wasn't convinced and the yeti gestured for the land beyond the village. 

"I still wish to train you and if you want, this can be your sanctuary for a time. I'll let you be alone with your thoughts now. Take a walk into the snow, great one. Let it clear your head and help you decide." 

The sound of Frostbite’s feet slowly left in the crunching snow and the halfa sighed a huff of hot air. He was alone once again, alone with his thoughts. Danny hesitated, but then followed the yeti's advice. 

It wasn't like he had anything better to do. 

He walked back down to the village with course for the tundra, eyes downcast and head deep in thoughts. 

Now that his body had gained control of the cold and his core was healed, Danny found a strange new adaption to the low temperature and felt no cold at all. It was as if he had become one with it and he took in this new sensation with a feeling of small comfort in his distress. 

Around him, the yetis went along with their daily lives and routine. 

He walked past a group of males assembling to patrol the other areas of the Far Frozen and a group of females preparing meat from the last day’s hunt. 

Three children ran past him with a ball between them and he watched them kick it around with glee, not a worry in the world. 

Danny envied them and continued to walk. Soon getting to the outskirts of the city and at the border to the white wasteland that was the Ghost Zone’s answer to Svalbard or Antarctica. 

Without the cold to bother him, Danny took a seat on an ice-covered cliff before him and let his feet hang over the edge. 

The silence of the place fell over him, no wind or city sounds to disturb the peace. There was no sun to light up the place, but the snow of the Ghost Zone seemed to shine on its own and he watched the land for a time. 

Tried to empty his mind and enjoy not freezing to death – but his mind had other plans of course. 

He had barely sat down before his brain had reminded him of his worries and Danny hugged himself. Not because he was cold – for a change – but because of the empty feeling inside him. 

Frostbite had called him a savior, a light of hope, the prophesied one. But Danny felt no comfort in that, didn’t feel like someone to be entrusted such goodness or reputation of righteousness. 

He wasn’t the great one. He was just an empty shell. 

A murderer. 

A liar 

A failure. 

A disappointment. 

Empty. 

Just empty. 

He sighed and didn't fight the misery glazing him like a second skin. There were still large holes in his memories of Dan, but those he remembered was more than enough. 

He remembered having thought his former existence before Freakshow as weak and disgusting. Remembered how Dan had found Danny's whish to paying his sins back by going to the chair foolish and pathetic. 

Danny frowned. Not sure if it was the shadow of Dan or the pass of time that was influencing his believes in the present. 

Danny's former will to die for righteousness seemed to have faded and the iron will that, had formerly driven him to find death suitable for his crimes and send him into the arms of prison, had mostly vanished. 

He wasn't sure where the weight behind his former decisions had went, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find the will to care for the pyromania anymore. 

He had the suspicion that the many innocent deaths on Dan's behalf had a thing to do with it. The innocent blood on his hands outshining the crazy flame-loving man's easily and made him hopelessly insignificant in the sea of Danny’s crimes against humanity. 

His frown deepened when he suddenly acknowledged that he had even come to believe the man had deserved it. 

The man had been a murderer after all. 

And murders went to prison and then the chair. As they were meant to. 

Danny had taken his life, yes, but in the end, the guy would have been punished by death with or without Danny's influence. He had simply shortened the sentence and spared the innocent lives this killer would have taken before someone else caught him. 

_You have nothing to feel guilty about and no reason to trouble your conscious like this. You did the right thing…_

Danny blinked. Vlad's voice still fresh in mind and clear as the ice he sat on. Vlad staring up at him with tears in his eyes. With fear. With guilt. 

A lump formed in his throat and Danny hugged himself a little tighter. 

Somewhat the pain he had inflicted on his nemesis seemed to outshine the rest of Dan's doings. As if breaking Vlad Masters, his foe and archenemy, had been the last straw. The last proof of Danny's own path into complete darkness. 

Complete surrender to evil. An evilness greater than even Vlad Plasmius'. 

Danny shook his head sadly, cursed himself and the past. Cursed Vlad for making him feel like this and Freakshow for having seduced him with his staff. 

But most of all himself. 

Finally accepting that he was his own worst enemy. His ultimate enemy. 

_"And I'm still here”,_ Dan whispered in his ear like venom, _“I still exist. That means you’ll still turn into me someday."_

"Fuck you..." he whispered and gritted his teeth, "just shut up." 

The silence continued and Danny's throat tightened, made it hard to breath. Voices of the past suddenly broke through to the surface and filled his mind with moments of emotions. Voices of the time from which he’d still had hope… 

_I don’t want you to feel like a failure just because our relationship didn’t work out._

"Shut up." 

_You’re my best friend after all and we’ll always have each other’s back._

"Shut up!" 

_You know I think you're great, right?_

"SHUT UP!" he shouted and gripped his head, "JUST SHUT UP!" 

_Danny. I see you there…_

The many voices of caring and words placed on him in trust, made his insides twist and his eyes sting. The ice cracked beneath him, as he shot out from the edge of the cliff at full speed and he flew as fast as he could. Tried to outrun his own head. 

"Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!! SHUT UP! SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!!!!" 

A large pool of toxic green ectoplasm fueled his hands and Danny fired it into the snow around him. Build up this wild energy inside of him and shot it in all directions. Shot down any possible target of ice or cliffs, made snow explode and ice splinter. 

His green ecto-rays turned darker the more the buildup and the color changed to almost white. The compressed power creating larger explosions and greater crats around him. 

Danny's shouting turned from cursing to incomprehensible nonsense and he continued his wild rampage till his powers ebbed out. He changed back to human in midair and fell like a stone back down to the ground. 

He forced his body to change back to ghost in the last second and hit the snow-covered ground. Buried himself into its deeps. 

His overheated hands made the snow melt around him and soon he was left exposed in a hole in the nothingness of this harsh winter land. The last power left his hands and the two rings formed around his midsection. 

Turning him back human. Weak and still. 

Danny stared up into the green sphere that was the sky and sank deeper down into the snow. The motivation of his anger seeping out of him like melting ice and the feeling of having been hollowed out settled in the place the anger had left. 

His mind getting haunted by its own hopelessness. 

He closed his eyes and felt the tears collect. Collect like all his regrets, and spilling down his cheek and mind like poison. The regrets gathering around him like old friends and all of them eager to make him relive his darkest memories. 

His shame, his fears, his disappointments. 

Most of them in himself. 

Despite knowing that most of his darkest actions had been made in a state of mentally or physical bound hands, it still angered him that he hadn't fought harder, resisted more. 

If he had been stronger, he could have left Vlad before the ruins of the castle and prevented the death of all the servants. 

If Danny had been stronger willed, maybe he could have resisted Freakshow’s staff and prevented all those killings of innocent people. 

If Danny had been stronger and braver, he could have returned to Tucker and Sam sooner, instead of hiding by the countryside like a coward. Stood up to Walker before things got out of hand and he’d lost it all. 

If he had been strong, he could have prevented all this and more. 

He could have saved hundreds of lives, prevented thousands of dangers and maybe – just maybe. He could have saved her. 

Saved Kemberly and stayed focus before the human who had killed her. 

If he had been _good_ , been a _real_ hero, maybe he could have saved the people he love. 

"But I'm not," Danny whispered and felt the tears slowly freeze on his cheeks, "I'm not a hero…and I’m not a good person." 

He closed his eyes and made the small drops of ice break on his eyelashes. Not keen to suicide – that ship had sailed – but a great part of him just wished to be buried. Right here. Right now. Buried in this snow and covered without a trace. 

Just vanish like a full ghost and become another legend, another myth, another thing to get lost in time. Another dirty speck to disappear in the white nothingness. 

The seventeen years he had been gone must have erased him from most of the world’s memory already. He felt a sting in his heart from the thought of Sam and Tucker having forgotten all about him. 

Continued one with their lives and probably living with a partner and having grown children by now. 

They would have surpassed him in visible aging by now, looking like people in their forties and maybe even having midlife crises, while he was stuck in his twenties and staying in his same old stew of problems. 

Despite being in his own forties – at least technical speaking – he still didn't feel like an adult or any wiser. The only thing making him different from being in his old twenties, was the extra load of crap he now had to wrestling with. 

It was just adding up with age he guessed. 

His mind suddenly did the math by itself and he snorted by the reminder. Vlad would be in his seventies by now. Had they been humans, Vlad would have been an old fart in a nursing home, while Danny would get his first specs of grey hair and wrinkles. 

Danny tried imagining what that would have looked like, but all he could think of was his mother. 

If faith had been merciful, she would have been a woman of old age by now and ready to leave this world with the knowledge of having left both her children into this world as grownups and with at least a daughter with children for her to call granny. 

Danny hadn't allowed himself to think of his mother for years, but found himself longing for her now. Longing to feel her arms around him, the sound of her soothing voice, the smell of her skin and perfume. 

All that was her, all that was safe. All that was home. 

He missed her. He missed her so much. 

Far into the deps of the Ghost Zone in a lonely land of ghostly ice and snow, Danny took a long deep breath and asked himself something he had never dared asking himself before. 

...Would his mother had been proud of him? 

The question made him stare up into the green world of ectoplasmic fumes and streams. 

It was a difficult and somewhat meaningless question to ask yourself – especially in your forties, _get a grip and grow up, Fenton_ – but getting an answer suddenly overwhelmed him with importance. 

If his mother could look down on him from a heaven and still find it in herself to forgive him for all his sins... 

Then maybe he could to. 

He stared intensely into the green nothingness, tried to find the beginning of all the things that she could have approved or disapproved of. 

His existence as a half-ghost came to mind as the first and he frowned. His mother had always hated ghosts, told him they were vicious creatures without emotions or heart. That the world had to be cleansed of them. 

Making him keep his doubts and powers to himself and hide his ghostly half from her ever since he could remember. 

It occurred to Danny that making your kid feel bad about himself like that, had been a shitty thing to do as a parent, but it was somewhat understandable in Madeline Fenton's case. 

Her husband had died because of a ghost portal and with that, her security in life. Forcing her to run from door to door with two kids in tow, to find some small stabilities in life and beg her way through existence at the mercy of others. 

She had been a hardworking mother at day and ghost hunter at night, always out there with her weapons to help someone with a ghost problem and defending humans. 

Danny wondered if she would still have loved him, if he had told her about his ghost powers. The ghost side of him, that had started to show around his sixth birthday and finally evolved into a somewhat complete transformation in his teens. 

Would she had looked past Phantom and been able to love him unconditional? 

The answer came to him immediately. 

Yes. Yes, she would. 

Knowing this without a doubt in his heart made a long lost warm fill his soul and he swallowed a lump in suddenly comfort. 

His mother would have loved him no matter what. She would have accepted him despite his ghost half. She had been his mother after all. 

Despite his goodwill towards ghost, her love for him had never wavered and even when he had punished her and Jazz's likening to Vlad by staying away from home, she had still written to him with a loving tone. 

Told him she'd loved him no matter what he chose to do. 

Danny could only admire her for it. Somewhat knowing that he had inherited his will to save and protect others from her. He might not be hunting down and killing ghosts like her, but he had dedicated most of his life to use his powers for good and save humans from ghost. 

Would she had been proud of him? 

He guessed she would. 

His lighter conscious darkened again when he took the calculations of all the humans he had killed into the counting. He might have saved people from ghosts, but many hadn't been saved from him. 

Danny bit his lips and searched his mind. Asked himself some of the more loaded questions. 

Would she had believed his evil side to be part of the ghost in him? That despite having a human side, he would always be a wicked ghost, no different from all the rest of his kind? 

Vlad hadn’t. Vlad had said he knew Danny. Knew that Dan wasn't the real him. 

That Dan was the evil Vlad himself had made him into. 

Would his mother have believed so to? That this evil side of him was an outside element, not a part of his divided soul? 

The sudden image of Vlad and his mother beating up Freakshow for picking on him, made him snort involuntarily. He covered his eyes with his arms and the little smile the image had provoked slowly faded and turned into a frown. 

Pointing to Freakshow as the one to blame, was partly unfair. Most of the killings had been on Danny's own initiative, staff or not. 

It was all fine and dandy that he had done it while under a spell and the rest of his human killing account haven died during the ghostly wail accident, when he was under Vlad's control – but what about the pyromania, then? Could she had forgiven him for taken his life? 

Danny lifted his arms and sat up. Stared ahead into nothing, lost in thought. 

Would she have found righteousness in the man's death? In Danny? 

He searched his memory for any clue of his deceased mother's opinions of murder and suddenly recalled a time long, long ago. 

He had just turned seven, maybe only six at that time. 

They had been forced to move out of their last stay at his father's family and slept at an inn. Danny remembered how the bedsheets had scratched and felt clammy around him. 

He hadn't been able to sleep because of all the new and strange noises around him and his little mind had been troubled, because of the guilt of playing with that little ghost boy, his mother had forbitten him to talk to. 

Danny remembered it strangely vividly and recalled how he had sat up in bed by the sound of his mother's return. The rented room had been small, nothing but one single room, and she had walked in with tired eyes and a soiled jacket. 

She hadn't detected her son being awake because of the dark, as she had neglected to light any candles – partly to save the money, and partly to prevent her children from waking up. 

Danny's ghostly night vision had made him see her clear as day and he remembered how his little heart had tightened in fear from the green color having drenched her cloth under the jacket. 

It had been nothing new, but as he had started to form a bond to a ghost and become aware of his own ghostliness by said little ghost, his mother's nightly venture and tales of ghost-hunts had begun to fright him, rather than excite him like they'd used to. 

The second scare had followed when the smell of blood had mixed with that of ectoplasm and she had retired to the inn’s bath facilities to try and wash her cloths clean. 

Danny had acted like he was asleep when she returned, but there was no way fooling a mother's intuition. She had sat down by his bed and had started combing his black tresses with her fingers. 

Caught the sound of his first sniffs and lifted him into her embrace when the first sobs had shaken his little frame. 

_"Shhh, I am here,_ " she had soothed and looked into his eyes with a calm stare, _"there is nothing to fear. The ghost is dead."_

Child Danny had turned his head to look at the wet clothes hanging by the room’s window and she had followed his gaze. 

Despite his mother's adaption to cleaning cloths by her own hands and learning how to manage without maids or help, the cloth was nowhere near clean despite her efforts. 

Without salt or real soap, the blood was still visible on the shirt’s sleeve and he remembered his mother holding him out to look him deep in the eyes and cupping his chubby cheeks. 

_"I had to end a man's life tonight,_ " she had said and Danny had widened his eyes. 

_"A bad man?"_ he had whispered, eager to defend his mother's actions and restore her image in his childish mind as a hero, despite her just having confessed murder. 

She had caressed his brow with a thumb and seemed tired, _"no, just confused. He had tried to stop mother from taking out the ghost. Didn’t care that it had killed several animals and a little girl to. The ghost had been his puppy as a child and he still believed the beast to be his little dog, Cujo."_

Danny had found it deeply odd that someone would believe a monster to be their pet, _"did it kill him? The puppy? Did it kill him?"_

He his mother had shook her head, _"no, pumpkin. Mom did, he threatened to hurt you and Jazz, so I had to kill him to."_

Danny had looked away with a troubled face and she had sighed and turned his face back to her. 

_"I know it is hard to understand, Danny. But sometimes...sometimes you will have to do horrible things to others without wanting to. Sometimes we will have to hurt others to save some and other times we will have to do things we do not want to, because there is no other way. Because they give us no other choice. Do you understand?"_

He had shaken his head and she had looked down at him with sorrow in her eyes and pressed him to her chest protectively. His fingers had entwined in her long auburn hair. Listened to her heartbeat. 

_"Someday you will, my sweet."_

Danny closed his blue eyes by the faint memories of his mother kissing his forehead. Forgiven her child beforehand of all his future mistakes.

   
 

Danny returned to the city of ghost yetis later that day. 

Not with a lighter heart or clearer mind, but a somewhat more bearable heart and mind less troubled than before. 

He wore no visible signs of change from his time in the Far Frozen's wasteland, but Frostbite's knowing eyes seemed to have spotted a difference in the half-ghost nevertheless. 

"So, great one. Have you come to a decision?" 

Danny looked down at his hands. Clenched them slowly, knew or had a hunch of all the things they had done and been. Weighted them up against each other and came to a final conclusion. 

"Yes. I wish to stay. I wish to learn."


	35. Truths to be learned, lessons to be lived

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> Nichols was working late to solve a case..  
>  _Nichols grunted. The boy was still only here because he was the closest they could come to a temporary suspect at the crime scene. Someone had emptied one of the casino shark’s pockets and all suspects had been thrown out to random stations._  
>  _He had already been told that several witnesses were taken into the second wave and the boy was really just a random bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the lack of valid ID was alarming still._  
>  _Nichols checked the report again. He had already been informed that a second suspect had been taken into the interrogation room next door and he hoped Miller had more luck with his suspect than him._  
>  _Danny probably didn’t know a thing. Nichols had only been told to keep him here because they couldn’t leave any loose ends in this. Better to be safe than sorry – that’s what his superiors always said anyway and he just had to toe the line as always._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Vlad had his oppenions  
>  _Danny felt the pull of Vlad’s portal below them and focused back on the man before him._  
>  _“The portal downstairs.”_  
>  _“My second attempt to create what failed fifteen years ago,” Vlad explained, clearly proud of his own achievement, “unfortunate, the first portal we build was to unstable, too big for its own good. We may had been the leading scientist in the field, but we were far from capable of understanding the powers we were toying with so relentlessly. I blame your father for the accident. Madeline was eight months into her pregnancy and shouldn’t have been working in her condition, but your father insisted on working until the portal was ready for the deadline of the test. If we had slowed down and acted less hastily, the accident could have been prevented. But unfortunately, your father had been clumsy enough to switch his soft drink out with the ecto-purifier and turn on the power, before your mother could inform him the calculations was wrong.”_
> 
> But without Danny, Vlad seems to have lost himself  
>  _An old impulse birthed by drunkenness and self-pity made the fifty-nine-year-old halfa pull out his pocket watch and opened it with a soft click. The old clock ticked on a steady pace, counting the rush of second, minutes and hours for the man even though time was an indifferent to his existence. On the inside of the silver lid an old black and white photograph greeted him with two smiling figures. He could still remember the day the picture had been taken. Daniel and he had still been close, as Vlad hadn’t spilled his feeling for the other yet. They had been visiting London and been deep in conversation about core functions, when Daniel had stopped him outside a studio and suggested them having a picture taken._  
>  _Vlad had decided to humor the boy as he had so often and sat down to have a picture taken with him. But of course, having a normal picture taken wasn’t like Daniel. Nothing ordinary ever was. So Vlad had played along after some coaxing and sat down to smile for five minutes straight together with Daniel. Both wearing neckclamps to keep their heads completely still and looking natural._  
>  _The finished product had been a picture of them smiling – a little strained and forced, but a picture of them smiling nonetheless. The photographer had thought them mad, but Vlad still found himself smiling every time he laid eyes on this little piece of precious memory._
> 
> But some people will move on from the loss of the young halfa  
>  _“Don’t worry,” Danny soothed with a relaxed pose and blew out a huff of grey smoke, watched the man with calm lidded eyes that seemed to blue to be real, “sweet Sammy-kins lived to be an old woman and used her inheritance to travel the world and worked for many years as a fighter for the environment and peoples right, mostly in Africa and Asia. She settled down in 1956 with a man in Hong Kong and adopted two little Japanese children. I found out through some old records that she had named them Lilith…and Danny.”_  
>  _Danny stared ahead for a second, scratched his neck and blew another huff of smoke – ignored Nichols eyes, to avoid getting addressed with his sympathy._  
>  _“She died in 1971,” Danny continued, “same year as Tucker, funny enough…but while he slept in besides his wife, she was run over by a car on the street._
> 
> But in the now, Danny has found a place to rest  
>  _Danny returned to the city of ghost yetis later that day._  
>  _Not with a lighter heart or clearer mind, but a somewhat more bearable heart and mind less troubled than before. He wore no visible signs of change from his time in the Far Frozen's wasteland, but Frostbite's knowing eyes seemed to have spotted a difference in the half-ghost nevertheless._  
>  _"So, great one. Have you come to a decision?"_  
>  _Danny looked down at his hands. Clenched them slowly, knew or had a hunch of all the things they had done and been. Weighted them up against each other and came to a final conclusion._  
>  _"Yes. I wish to stay. I wish to learn."_
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey people :D  
> I am close to have finished the ending and the last chapters - I think you're going to love them :)  
> I have made some slight changes in the previous chapter after I received a comment from the lovely Goten_Son_Ten and realised I've made some big mistakes - I have fixed them and tried my best to make the chapter more in character with the rest of the fic - take a look if you like:)  
> Happy 1. december everyone :D  
> Hope you'll enjoy and comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA_

"So you stayed," Nichols repeated and Danny nodded calmly. 

"I stayed." 

When the half-ghost didn’t elaborate, or added any details, the cop got a nagging feeling and frowned. 

"...is this one of those breaks in the story, where you skip decades of time to get to the more important parts?" 

Danny snorted, "what? You want me to drag out my time at the yetis and go into details about my training and how I became renamed as 'the dangerous one'? You want me to make a narrative training montage in the best Rocky style or something?" 

Nichols ignored the sarcasm, "why the ‘dangerous one’?" 

Danny shrugged sheepishly, "let’s just say I had a really hard time controlling my ice powers and ended up hitting spectators instead of the target boards at first. I lost a great deal of popularity because of that – had to use my natural charm to make up for it and win back their hearts." 

"No kidding," Nichols grunted and pushed away his greasy burger wrapping and empty soda, "but taken that you're the fast learner in most things, you got the better hand of your powers with time?" 

"I think I managed pretty well," Danny bragged in somewhat humility and folded his hands behind his neck, looked up at the ceiling in thought, "Frostbite trained me for a couple of years, took me with him into the deps of the Far Frozen and showed me how to control the ice in my center. Showed me yeti secrets and some of his people’s most sacred places – taught me the yeti ways and their philosophy. About being a ghost." 

"Sounds like a spiritual journey," Nichols commented and Danny send him a goofy look. 

"Not sure if that was a pun or you’re being serious, but yeah. Other than helping me develop my powers, he and his people taught me a lot about life. Until I meet Frostbite, most of my life had been spend in the human world. Amongst humans and well…Vlad." 

Danny's forehead wrinkled a bit, "ghosts was only something I meet in fight or rarely got on friendly terms with. As a half-ghost born in the human world, I never really felt like I belonged in the undead world. When I started to live among ghosts in the Ghost Zone, you could say that my life was turned around a bit. I spent more time in my ghost half for once, began to adapt to the Ghost Zone's ways of life and got closer to a lot of ghosts. Didn't have to hid like I had in the human world, didn’t have to fear others finding out about my other half...I guess you could say I found peace with my ghost side." 

Nichols observed him quietly before building up his question, "and Dan? Did you come to peace with him?" 

It took a long time before Danny spoke again, but when he finnaly did, it was with a collected voice, "I still see or sense him sometimes. When I’m tired from a patrol and fly past a sudden reflection. Or when I say mean thing in my moments of sarcasm, wondering where the words were coming from. The nightmares faded with the years, but despite haven lost his grasp in me, I still feel his presence..." 

Danny knocked on the back of his head with a tired look, "sleeping, waiting. Somewhere just behind the back of my mind. Waiting for me to make a mistake, to take a misstep. To invite him back into the light. It’s my greatest virtue to keep myself from walking back unto that path he'd set for me. It’s what keeps me on my toes, you know. What keeps me sharp and in check. What makes me...well…me." 

Danny made a wry smile, many unsaid things showing in his eyes, but Nichols understood. Everyone had their demons after all. All of them would have to live with mistakes and make the best of it. 

He could forgive the immortal for keeping somethings to himself, keeping his issues strong and tell what he could bare. 

It was their deal after all. 

Both of them was startled when Janice suddenly popped her head into the investigation room. In the sphere of the story, it was easy to forget all about the world around them. 

"I got a call from officer Clint, he said they're almost done at the casino and will be wrapping up thing in an hour or two if they get the last witnesses to cooperate." 

"Alright," Nichols replied, haven forgotten all about the case that had resolved in Danny being taking in for question in the first place, "did he say anything about a suspect being found?" 

Janice send Danny a glance and Nichols rolled his eyes, "he's not a suspect anymore, I'm just keeping him here for the kicks of it – you can talk about the case with him here." 

The woman sent them both a confused look, but took his word for it, "well, the thing about it being a case of card counting has been turned down as being a ruse. Cheif has found some evidence that seems to lean more on it being a card game gone wrong. Apparently, a lucky guest won a great deal of money and the patron’s searching for an easy way out to get the money back in their pockets. If that’s true, we might stand with a case of loan sharks using police force to steal money from an innocent casino guest." 

Nichols rubbed his face with a sigh, "fucking gangsters. Any of the collaborating witnesses needing witness protection?" 

Janice squirmed a bit in the door, "they're trying to sort it out right now." 

Nichols could already see the pile of paperwork growing on his desk. 

"Tell me if it gets out of hand, I need to wrap up the last things with Danny here." 

Janice seemed to get the hint and closed the door after her. Danny turned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow. 

"Wow, I had no idea this place could afford a second employee. It's like I'm actually at a real police station!" 

"Oh, shut up," Nichols grumbled and Danny snickered. 

"Okay, okay. That was uncalled for, it’s a very functional police station you work at and not at all a dump – I'll get back to the story now." 

"Yes please," the cop grunted and Danny pulled up his long legs to fold them on the chair. 

"I continued to stay in the Far Frozen to learn more and perfect my training for a while. Began to live like a yeti and even had one of the females braiding my hair with little stones and beads. I took part in their lives and after while I was accepted like a yeti, like a ghost of ice. The Far Frozen is kinda funny place, ya know? They have all this extremely advanced technology far more developed than our own, but they still hang on to their old traditions, like hunting with spears and tell stories of the first ancients by the fire. It's a funny mix of the old and new in a tight little bubble of snow and cold. Most ghosts don’t even dare to go there, because of the deathly temperatures and the yetis." 

"They're frowned upon by other ghosts or something?" Nichols asked curious and Danny lifted his hands to weight the metaphorical options. 

"Well, more feared than disliked, I guess. Unlike most ghosts, they're born as ghosts and not spawned. They're more related to the ancient ghosts of the zone, than the normal population and they don't like outsiders. They have a habit of chasing out ghosts, who get to close to their territory and trust me, you don't want to fuck with these guys – they don't take shit from nobody." 

Nichols smirked, "they must have adored you, then." 

"Believe it or not, but I’m still the shit down there. It got a little awkward once after I danced with a yeti chick during a festival and her mother suddenly saw a potential chance of getting the savior as her son-in-law, but all in all, it still feels like a second home to me. I go there sometimes when I lose purpose in the human world, but I try not to make it a habit to come there too often. Frostbite always made a feast to celebrate my return and I doubt they can afford that more than ones a few years." 

Nichols felt a little more at easy by hearing of Danny's clear fondness of the Far Frozen. During the story, he had feared that the kid would end up completely alone in the end, but it seemed that Danny at least had one home to turn to now. 

Danny wasn't completely alone in this life...but something would seem that he had chosen to be. 

"What made you return to the human world then?" 

Danny rocked a bit on the chair with a pensive expression. 

"Well, I just think it was time...I guess? Also Frostbite just woke me up one day and told me to follow him. I left with him and the elders of the city before the rest of the yetis woke up and flew with them on one of their flying snow speeders into the vast wildness. We stopped when a cave popped up far out. He said I was ready. Ready to face my past."

   
 

 _Year 1983, the sacred temple, the Far Frozen, the Ghost Zone_

_**"He said I was ready. Ready to face my past."** _

   
 

"My what now?" 

"Your past," Frostbite repeated with the same passion as always, "this, great one, is the temple of our deepest secret and most sacred artefacts. Your training is complete and there is nothing more for you to learn. Only your own destiny." 

"So... you woke me up in the middle of the night to go look at some old yeti stuff?" Danny asked slowly and yawned tiredly, "couldn't this had waited till after lunch? Breakfast maybe?... Brunch?" 

"I'm afraid not," one of the elders said and lead Danny into the cave, "the shaman only takes visitors at limited times and she has found this moment to be the time of your final task." 

"Which is?" 

He didn't get an answer, but Danny had lived amongst the yetis long enough to know asking more into this would be fruitless. The yetis were a strange mix of laconic speaking and puppy excitement, meaning it was hard to get much sense out of them. 

But he guessed that creatures living isolated in a frozen wasteland would have to get their entertainment where they could. They sure loved to be mysterious and dramatical a lot. 

A blue fireplace lighted the entrance of the cave and Danny moved around the pit along with the other yetis. 

The warm from the flames tickled his beard and Danny began braiding his long hair, hadn't gotten a chance to do anything about it, as he was almost dragged out of his bed this morning. 

He secured the white waist-long hair with a leather lace and rode his finger through his beard to detangle the small beads and little braid from each other. 

The yetis rarely shaved and with their natural coat of fur, they had made it fashion amongst them to braid or secure things into their longer hair and tails. 

Danny had cut his hair at first and shaved with the tools he could get his hands on, but after a few months in the village, he had allowed his hair and goatee to grow and after a while, some of the females had offered to teach him to style it the yeti way. 

Danny hadn't seen why not and just went along with it. Already getting used to living as a yeti, he might as well blend in the best he could. The white cloak still hung securely from his shoulder and he had added a leather belt to his black battle suit. 

His human form was no different and clad completely in fur and skin, although Danny preferred to stay ghost in the zone. 

He had discovered by accident some time back, that humans apparently worked like ghost in the zone. His human form could phase through walls and vice versa, just as specters could on earth. 

Pretty neat and all, but it became a problem when you fell asleep and woke up in free fall, because you had phased out of bed and lair in your sleep. 

"Great one," Frostbite proclaimed and lifted the large leather drapery at the end wall of the cave to the side. Revealing a tunnel leading deeper into the cave. 

"The shaman is ready to see you." 

None of them made a move to follow him and Danny shrugged before walking past the drapery. It fell back in place behind him and Danny stared back a second, before moving deeper in. Apparently, he was going in alone. 

Old engravings filled the walls on each side of him and Danny could smell the crisp ice hiding in the stone. Natural stairs formed beneath his boots and he descended into the darkness and possible the foot of the mountain outside the cave. 

It felt as if he had walked for miles, before the tunnel suddenly ended and an entrance to a small room opened before him. A thick smell of incense and ritual herbs filled the heated air. 

The smoke veiling the place and making Danny walk in a thick aromatic fog without clear direction. 

The shadow of a yeti sitting by the fireplace in the middle of the room, revealed itself as he got closer and the contour of the yeti gestured for him to sit down on the opposite side of the fire. 

Danny seated in a lotus position mirroring her and waited for the yeti to start talking. Now that he had gotten closer the yeti had turned out to be a lot smaller than most of her species and the old female caught his eyes behind the skull mask. 

It was a green skull of some larger predator unknown to Danny. The three horns twisting like that of a ram, but the size and canines resembling more that of a dragon. 

"Danny Phantom," the old yeti rasped and stirred the embers of the pit with a stick, "the great one and halfa of the Ghost Zone." 

"That's me I guess, wanna buy the title?" Danny replied flatly, breaking the mysterious atmosphere, a bit and the old yeti snorted – or maybe laughed, it was pretty hard to hear when she talked through a monster skull and he couldn't see her face either. 

"A young spirited with heavy burdens," she mused and threw some more herbs into the embers, making the air heavy with a sweet smell. 

Danny rose an eyebrow, "did you just throw deathblossoms into the fire or something? Are we getting high now?" 

The yeti ignored him, "I have called you here to show you your way -" 

" – if this is one of those rituals where we get high and shit to get visons, I'll rather pass. I've already tried Frostbite's pipe and boy did I get wasted or what!" 

The shaman knocked him on the head with the stick and Danny snickered. Knew he was being a little shit, "ow." 

"As I tried to explain, your time with us here has come to pass." 

That made Danny forget all about goofing around and he frowned sadly, "but...I like it here. I know Frostbite said there was nothing more for me to learn, but does that mean I really can't stay?" 

The shaman smiled – or he guessed she did based on her tone, "the world needs you more than you know, young one. Your time of rest and training have kept you from your duties long enough, it's time you return to the human world and return to the path of which you belong." 

Danny sulked. Deep down he knew she were right, but that didn't mean he liked it one bit. The time he had spent in the Far Frozen had been something stable. The life out here was hard, but to Danny it had been his own little slice of heaven. 

A sanctuary of friends, useful experience and most of all peace. 

But it seemed that all good things would come to an end. His vacation was over apparently. 

He hesitated, "I'm...but what if I don't want to return to the human world?" 

"Where you go and in which world you live, is up to you," she replied calmly, "but remember, stalling from our paths is a choice that rarely solves our troubles. If you wish to be the master of your own destiny – as I sense is a desire of yours – you will have to face your fears and take it back with your own hands. Hiding from the world is never the answer." 

Danny sighed, "ugh, fine – so what did you guys send me down here to do again?" 

The shaman didn't reply, but reached into her cloak instead. Danny watched with interest as a round screen the size of a dinner plate was revealed. 

Danny had gotten used to the technology in the Far Frozen and knew this kind of electronics could show you moving pictures or diagrams, but unlike the yeti's technology, this screen seemed more streamlined...more delicate. 

Danny accepted the screen and examined it curiously. 

"It’s a mirror of great ancient magic," the shaman explained and made Danny crock an eyebrow. 

"Magic? Not technology?" 

She nodded solemnly, "this mirror have been passed down from shaman, to shaman for generations. It was brought to us by my grand, grand, grandfather, who was handed the artifact by the ancient being called Clockwork. A gift from the Master of Time himself. 

Danny turned the screen over in his hand, "he just gave it to you guys?" 

“Oh no, he threw it out the window of his tower one day and hit my grand, grand, grandfather in the head. Yelling something about a Disasteroid being a bad way to end a good show. The shaman took it as a blessing and ran off with it. Most of our magical artifact it achieved that way.” 

Danny pursed his lips in thought, "...so you want me to see my future? Is that it?" 

The idea excited him a bit. Knowing his own future would become handy, even though he had a suspicion that it wouldn't be that different from the past. 

The shaman nodded, "in a way, young one. The things I wish you to see before you leave this lair, is both of the things that has been, the things that is and the thing...you yet have to face. It is a chance for you to come to an understanding with yourself and find the truth in your fate. A chance to find your path and follow it." 

Danny stared into the dark screen for a second, wondering about all the possibilities it held. 

"How do I use it?" 

The shaman reached over and placed his smaller hand on the surface of the screen. Danny’s hand started to light with green energy and when the screen came to life, the yeti pulled her paw back. 

Danny stared into the static uncertain, beginning to think it was broken, but then the screen began to show an image. Danny stopped breathing when he recognized the woman. 

"...mom?" 

Madeline Fenton didn't seem to sense him, as she dusted her hands of in her dress and walk away from the chalkboard she had been writing on. 

Two men popped into sight in what seemed to be a sophisticated lab and Danny recognized the tall lean one as Vlad. A younger and much more timed one, he supposed, but Vlad Masters nonetheless. 

The man of the past smiled genuinely by the sight of Danny's mother and handed a tool to the man by his side. 

Danny's eyes widened. 

He had never seen the man in real life of know other than his reputations. The only thing Danny had ever had to clung to, had been the image of the man created with the help of his mother’s stories of him and the comment of strangers. 

The man resembled the old photography in his mother’s old luggage perfectly, but was so much more than that, as he stood there in the flesh. 

Danny remembered how his mother always used to say he had inherited his father’s eyes and thick inky tresses, telling him she saw so much of her husband in him. Danny had to admit she was partly right. 

The man's tint and face were much like Danny's, but he was nowhere the size or height of this mountain of a man. 

His father had been a great man in more than one way. 

_"I tell you, Jack, it's never going to work!"_ Vlad stated in irritation and got a beaming smile from Jack Fenton. 

_"Of course it will, V-man!"_

Danny sucked every word to him. Hungry for every detail he could get from the puzzle that was his father. His voice was exactly as he had imagined. Full of life. Joyful to the brim and possessing the character of a gentleman. 

His eager reminding Danny of his sister. 

Curious to know more, Danny watched around the moving picture and found something looking like a huge portal behind the three. It held a great resembles to the one Vlad had kept in his castle, before Danny had wrecked it with his ghostly wail and he stiffened in realization. 

It was the Fenton ghost portal. The first of its kind. 

The one that took the life of his father. 

None of the three seemed to know the danger they lived in and continued to discuss the preparations and testing of said portal. Danny frowned, watched them intensely. 

Vlad had always said that the accident had been his father's fault. Called Jack Fenton a buffoon and imbecile, whose death had come as served for his foolishness. 

The only version of the accident Danny knew of had been the story Vlad had told him, and knowing that the man disliked his father, Danny had never believed the accident to really be Jack's fault. 

His mother had never talked about the accident, but never spilled a bad word about his father either. If it really had been his father’s mistakes that destroyed the portal, she would have told them...right? 

Danny insides twisted in uncertainty and he suddenly felt like turning the screen away. The pedestal he had placed his father on for years was suddenly turned into something fragile. 

If it was true that his father was the one to make him an Halfa, then the image of him might suffer and Danny's opinion of him could waver. Danny didn't want that, didn't want to have his believes in his deceased father soiled. 

Even if it was the truth. 

But despite his fears, Danny kept watching. Took in the sight of his parents with hunger and growing unease as the seconds went by. He bit his fangs into his lower lip when his father mistook the cola for ecto-purifier and poured it into the machinery. 

"Noo..." Danny groaned and could barely watch as his mother pointed out the flaws of his father's calculations. 

The sudden urge to tell Vlad to get out of the way and flee from the front of the portal, filled the tormented half-ghost and he could only watch as the portal exploded in a sea of green light. 

Vlad was taken by the light as the first, screaming in pain and Jack Fenton used the last seconds of his life to cover his pregnant wife with his body. The screen turned completely green and the vison of the past ended. 

Danny closed his eyes. Not wanting to see anymore. 

To his great bitterness, Vlad had been right for once. He had told the truth. 

Jack Fenton was the course of their half-ghostly existence. 

Danny reopened his eyes and watched his mother recover in the hospital. 

He waited for the distaste of his father to come, but found that he didn't held any. Despite now knowing that is was his father's fault he had become a Halfa, his view of the man hadn't changed the slightest. 

He still idolized him. Still loved the man he had never known. 

Maybe it’s because I've have always known, Danny thought quietly. The stories his mother had told him as a child, had never hidden the clumsy nature of his father or tried to make him a man of persnickety virtues. 

Jack Fenton had been a man of great taste in life and possessed a heart bigger than most. He might have been a man of many flaws, but always tried his best. 

Danny could admire that. He could still find admiration in the name of his unknown father. 

The screen changed again and seemed to have jumped a couple of decades. 

Danny watched as Sam and Tucker set out to search for him after his escape from prison. It filled him with pain to see them search in vain, not finding the slightest clue of his whereabouts. 

After what seemed like a long fruitless search, they finally returned to the states after the second war broke out. The halfa observed quietly how they found comfort in each other in his absence and continued on with their new life together. 

After a couple of years, they parted again and moved in each direction. Tucker settled with a wife to become a family, while Sam started to travel the world. Danny watched her fall in love again and saw her grow older. 

Saw how they lived and found happiness along with sorrows. Experienced life is all its colors and lived with all the facets that made a long eventful human life. 

Danny smiled. Saw all his hopes for them come to life before him. 

He was happy for them. 

The wish to see his sister suddenly made the screen change and he felt the lump in his throat return. Jasmine Thornwood stood before a grave with a black veil around her head. A large funeral procession behind her. 

His funeral, he realized. 

People came to offer their condolences in a line and she accepted them on both Danny and Vlad's behalf. The sight made Danny's chest tighten and the regrets followed swiftly. 

"Oh, Jazz," he whispered and caressed her pale face on the screen. 

She had been pregnant at that time, looking pale and tearful. He watched as she returned to her husband and one-year-old child. Kept visiting the empty graves with them as the years went by. 

Saw how her children grow up and his sister age to her full potential as a grown woman, now a mother of five. 

The way she had styled her hair was so like their mother, that it pained him to watch and he felt tears form in his own eyes when she began working on a scrapbook. 

It was a book of old pictures from their childhood and newer ones from newspaper of _New Yorkshire_ and _New York city_. 

He knew all the articles by heart. The ones from Yorkshire had been something he had seen while Vlad read at the breakfast table. Articles about them and the parties Vlad had hosted with Danny by his side as heir. 

But the ones from _New York Times_ , was articles that had been pointed out for him by Tucker and Sam at the office, when they had earned a name after a great victory. 

_**"New York medium and his ghost saves the day."**_

_**"Central park catastrophe prevented by Phantom and team."**_

_**"The heroes of the city."**_

_**"Phantom investigators receives medal from mayor Walker of New York city."**_

_**"Panic at NYC museum of history. Fonten’s ghost to the rescue!"**_

Jazz collected them patiently. Glued them into her book and compared the pictures of the deceased Daniel Fenton to the living Danny Fenton...and then compared Fenton and Phantom 

Danny's breath hitched when she finally put the pieces together. She smiled as she came to know his secret. Came to know he was still alive and had been Phantom all along. 

"She knew," Danny uttered quietly and the shaman just nodded as if she knew what he was babbling about. 

Danny's small second of joy took a more hurtful twist when his sister finally came to achieve his phone number after a long bothersome search – only to hear that he had been taken to prison. 

New tears welled in his green eyes, as he watched how she traveled to find him and arrived at the Sing Sing prison. 

Danny suddenly remembered the day. It had been the day Freakshow had finished his crystal ball. Danny had been told he had a visitor the following day and thought it to be Vlad. 

She had been less than a few blocks from the prison and he hadn't had a clue. 

Danny covered his eyes. Gritted his teeth as she received the news of his disappearance. 

Couldn't stand to see how the words wounded her. 

The screen changed as command and showed him a different setting. Danny came to understand it as the present and watched Vlad Masters walk into view. 

Vlad seemed...older. 

His hair was still pure silver and the few wrinkles more flattering than actually sign of age, but there was still something...older about him. The older halfa walked to a desk and moved a folder of papers out from a box. 

The green pages of Sojourn’s journal lighted up in dark room and the collection seemed almost complete. Danny frowned in concern, recalled the man’s talk about taking over the Ghost Zone with the pages and then the human world. 

The man’s megalomaniac dreams seemed close to become reality, but even with the almost complete work of the legendary journal on his table…Vlad didn't seem the least happy. The winning smirk was nowhere in sight and the posture seemed tense. 

Vlad dismissed the pages with a scowl and turned his back on them to lean by the chimney. Looked into the crimson flames with a troubled stare. Seemed lost in his thoughts. 

Danny felt a mix of emotions by the sight of Vlad's distress. After haven come to know the truth of the accident and been forced to acknowledge that the man had told him the truth, his anger against the man had lessened a bit. 

A lot of Danny’s anger had lessened during the time he had spent in Far Frozen. 

There were still things Vlad could never seek to reach forgiveness for and doings that no amends could ever undo, but the old seething anger in Danny had begun to fade with the years. 

Maybe it was time healing all wounds or the nature of growing from childish black-and-white believes of the world to the more grey-fielded adulthood, that had made Danny change his view on the man. 

He didn't know. 

He only knew that he in strange ways missed the man and in many ways, shouldn't miss him at all. 

What Vlad had done to him and taken from him was unforgivable, something that neither time or change could undo. 

But it would be a lie to say he hadn't come to understand him. 

They had been separated long enough for Danny to know it wasn't a young heart, twisted emotions of a prisoner or brainwashing speaking, when he still felt something towards the man. 

He doubted anyone could ever come to resent the man more than he, but he also doubted that anyone could ever hope to understand him as much as Danny. After all, nobody knew what made the two of them who they were, other than them. 

Danny knew no one would ever come to understand him as Vlad did. And the same thing the other way around. They were what they were. Alone together in this world. 

The only two of their race to ever have existed in this world – and it was a small world. They would have to live with each other until one of them didn’t. 

Vlad pulled out an old pocket watch from his pocket and Danny felt a sting of nostalgia by the sight of the old clockwork. A little relic from a time only they would come to remember one day. 

Danny didn't need to see more and whished for it to change. The screen did as commanded and a sequence of unknown places showed one by one. 

A picture of Jazz hanging in a house in a town called Amity Park. 

A vault in a library in the Ghost Zone. 

A child’s pirate hat on top of an office building in London. 

A piano inside a casino in Seattle. 

The vison ended, and the screen became dark. Danny stared at it for a long time, before lifting his gaze to meet the shaman's. 

"You know what to do now," she said and Danny slowly nodded. 

He did. He finally knew what he had to do.

   
 

The village awaited them as they returned in the fresh daylight of the Ghost Zone and the preparation of his departure had already been taken care of. 

Danny was once again seated in the seat of honor and the feast of his farewell took up most of the day. 

After haven taken his leave with every last one of the yetis and accepted their gift for the travel – more than he could possible carry, actually – Frostbite stepped forward as the last and placed a scroll in his hands. 

"This is the infi-map. It will take you to any destination you may desire in the Ghost Zone and any portal to the human world that leads to your own time. All you have to do is speak the wish of where you want to go and when you've reached it, the map will find home itself when you tell it to return to me and the Far Frozen." 

Danny unfolded the map with a whistle, "any place?" 

"Yes," Frostbite assured, "but remember, the map has its own will. Where you want to go isn't always the place you need to be. The map has a way of knowing this and it is wisest to trust it even though we don't always understand at first." 

Danny understood – or hoped he did – and rolled it back into a closed scroll. Picked up his gifts and exhaled. 

It was time to leave. 

Frostbite looked him over one last time, before nodding in approval, "and now, great one, you are finally ready to return home." 

Danny looked up at the yeti he had come to consider an older brother and smiled, "I think I will always see the Far Frozen as my home, Frostbite." 

A soft smile tugged at the great yeti’s lips and he placed a hand on Danny's shoulder with a gentle voice, "and it will remain as such for as long as you want it to. Danny, son of man, savior of ghosts, sprite of ice and yeti of the Far Frozen." 

Danny couldn't keep himself back and hugged the ghost. Frostbite pulled him in with a chuckle and parted with Danny along with the rest of the village with a smile and demand of him returning to visited soon. 

Danny promised and whispered into the infinity map. 

"Take me to my sister."


	36. A blast from the past and new acquaintance is in store

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> a black and white picture was once taken by Danny and his family  
>  _"This’s my mother and sister. It's me next to them."_  
>  _Nichols brought the picture closer and felt his mouth dry out._  
>  _A dark-haired boy with dimples and bright eyes stared back in a mixture of amusement and seriousness._  
>  _A small handwritten note in faded blue ink had been written on the blank back of the photograph._  
>  _ **Behave properly, Danny. Write when you can.**_  
>  _ **\- Jazz.**_  
>  _The Year of publication, maybe noted by the photographer, lit up with faded italics in the right corner. **1910.**_  
>  _He looked back up at the late-teen in front of him, who was now back to his black-haired and hoodie-clad self._  
>  _Danny looked good for a 117-year-old man._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And a ganster was introduced in New York  
>  _“You will grow into it over time,” Walker promised, like he was one to tell how Danny felt, “I was like you once. A punk who didn’t respect the rules or the ones enforcing them. You might as well spare yourself a lot of trouble by just following my lead. It’s important that you understand I’m the only thing keeping a pack of agents from taking you out. I am your boss, protector, executer, benefactor, and if necessary; your executioner!"_  
>  _“You said ‘executer’ twice,” Danny noted toneless._
> 
> A henchman tried to take over his throne  
>  _Bullet seethed, “I don’t care if it’s that leech he’s fancying, who’s having him under a spell or something, this has gone for too long.”_  
>  _“Agree,” another agent added and send Bullet a side-glance, “maybe it’s time for some change. How does new management sounds to you fellas?”_  
>  _The rest of the white-clad men murmured in accordance. There had been a stirring in the ranks for the past weeks and changes seemed inevitably._  
>  _“Then let’s get to work and purge this organization back to bleach white,” Bullet smirked and went for the cars with his men. They had a wer-ghost to take for a walk._
> 
> And a were-wolf gained his played his part  
>  _The were-ghost moved closer from the shadows and they all cringed by the sight of the mauled Bullet behind him._  
>  _“Uhm…good boy?” Tucker tried and the ghost roared at him in return. The ghost suddenly shocked them all by talking – not a language they knew or understood, but human words nonetheless. Tucker blinked and responded in the same unknown language. Both Sam and Danny just stared at him._  
>  _“What? It’s Esperanto, my grandma used to speak it,” Tucker said, awfully pleased with himself._  
>  _“Then, what does he want?” Sam asked suspiciously and Tucker looked down at Danny’s hand._  
>  _“He says you have the cursed flute that forces him to obey men.”_  
>  _Danny blinked and then remembered the little green flute he had picked up earlier, “oh, sorry – here you go.”_  
>  _The ghost caught it in the air and grinned strangely humanlike with a, “Amiko!” before pulling them all in for a bone-crushing, but amazingly soft hug. An explosion from outside made them all jump and the were-ghost send them one last cheeky fang-filled grin, before slicing the air with his claws, creating something that looked like a blue portal and jumped through._
> 
> And in the strange land of The Far Frozen, Danny gets a vision of his future.  
>  _Danny didn't need to see more and whished for it to change. The screen did as commanded and a sequence of unknown places showed one by one._  
>  _A picture of Jazz hanging in a house in a town called Amity Park._
> 
> And the cheif of the yetis gives him the means to get back to her  
>  _"This is the infi-map. It will take you to any destination you may desire in the Ghost Zone and any portal to the human world that leads to your own time. All you have to do is speak the wish of where you want to go and when you've reached it, the map will find home itself when you tell it to return to me and the Far Frozen."_  
>  _Danny unfolded the map with a whistle, "any place?"_  
>  _"Yes," Frostbite assured, "but remember, the map has its own will. Where you want to go isn't always the place you need to be. The map has a way of knowing this and it is wisest to trust it even though we don't always understand at first."_
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hello pompous pep people :)  
> hope you're all having a wonderful december - mine is going nice so far :D  
> some old faces will return in this chapter and that in a more ghostly fashion - if ya know what i mean ;)  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1985, somewhere near the ghost prison, the Ghost Zone._

The infi-map sure was fast. 

The rush of the map dragged Danny through the zone in seconds and made everything around him a blur in its wake of incredible speed. Danny hold onto it for dear life and was pretty sure some of his gifts had already been lost somewhere behind him in the rush. 

"And I really needed those pans and crochet napkins," he noted sarcastically to himself and yelped as the map took a sharp turn – and then stopped. 

Danny smacked into the map with a groan and looked around him in confusion. Neither portals or door in sight. All he could see for miles was green moving ectoplasm and the Zone’s natural streams of floating ecto-creatures. 

"Hey, what gives!? We're still in the Ghost Zone?" 

The map didn't make any more move to lead him further and Danny closed it to open it once more. 

"I said; take me to my sister." 

The map moved a meter and then stopped again. Danny looked around for answers, but found no sudden portal leading to the human world or any sign of his sister floating around. 

He tried commanding the map a couple of times in different ways and with different commands, but no matter what he did, the map stayed stationary and left him hanging in the same spot as before. 

"Aw, c’me on – I don't have time for this," he mumbled and unfolded it to try and find a portal to earth on the map manually. 

If it didn't want to take him there, he would just find the way himself. It was a map after all. He just had to find a useful portal and he would be back to the human world in no time. 

The easiest thing would be to just make a portal himself and jump through, to this place called “Amity Park”. Only problem was, that just because he knew the name of a place, didn’t mean he knew its exact coordinates. 

He could jump into the human world, all right, but jumping to a place he had never seen or been to before? Not that easy. 

His ice powers warned him of other ghostly interties with a huff of blue mist, but given that he was in the world of ghosts, he didn't take any notice of it and continued to read the map undisturbed. 

That had been a mistake. 

Danny gasped surprised when green ropes wrapped around his wrists and ankles. Making him fall flat on his face. He landed with a hard thud on a turf of hovering ghost ground and caught the map with a boot, before it could roll over the edge and disappeared. 

A ring of ghosts, in something looking strangely like police uniforms, closed in around him and pointed their short green staffs at him. The ends sparkled with green electricity. 

"Well this is awkward," Danny deadpanned, "you guys must have mistaken me for someone else – I'm just on sightseen." 

"Silence, ghost-man," an orotund voice laced with southern accent warned and Danny forgot all about breaking the ropes and whoop these ghost’s asses, as he recognized the voice. 

"...Walker?" 

A pale ghost in a white suit and black fedora stepped into the circle as the clear authority of the ghost force and went down on a knee to stare Danny in the face. 

Even though the ghost's face was nothing but a skull covered by glowing white skin and two solid green slits, there was no doubt. 

Mr. Walker, former mafia boss and leader of the Guy’s in White, had become a ghost. 

"I see you have heard of me, half human punk," ghost Walker growled and grabbed Danny by the hem of his cloak to get to eye level, "know it, fear it, OBEY IT!" 

Danny lifted an eyebrow, a bit confused. It was as if he didn't... _oh._

"You have no idea who I am, do ya?" Danny asked and the ghost pushed him back down with a scoff. 

"Save that for the judge, ghost-man. Which is me as your law enforcer and keeper of this territory you’re now trespassing on. Which is against the rules." 

"Say what now?" Danny croaked in a mix of surprise and utter amusement. 

It was almost to ironic to take seriously. Walker had died for an organization hunting ghosts, only to become one and start a ghost organization enforcing laws of the zone – and apparently against humans just to add up. 

A large green tome with the words _'Rules'_ popped into Walker's hands and he began flipping through the pages with narrowed green slits. 

"Ignorance of law is no excuse for breaking them, punk. According to the rules, I find you guilty as following: trespassing on forbidden territory. Loitering. Transportation of unregistered possessions of the Far Frozen. Creating a disturbance. Use of transportation not recognized by the law. Status as half-ghost and thereby possession of real-world material, if not contraband in a territory that prohibits it and last but most important – having resisted arrest." 

"Hey, no I haven't!" Danny protested and was shocked by three of the goon staffs. 

Walker closed the book with a snap, "talking back is resisting and will add five hundred more years to your sentence." 

"And how much is that again?" Danny asked confused and winced at the burn mark on his shoulder. 

"One thousand years,” Walker informed and began counting on his fingers, “now one thousand, five hundred and _fifteen_ for being a smart mouth punk. Put him away, boys." 

Danny had no doubt that he could take out these assholes with a hand behind his back and covered eyes, but a part of him wanted to know more and he rolled over to the map before one of the goons could get to it. 

"Frostbite, the Far Frozen," he whispered to it and watched as the goons tried grabbing it, but the map slipped their hands and zoomed into the Ghost Zone like a green lightning. 

Gone. 

Danny smirked and Walker made signal for his goons to strip him of his gifts. Danny didn’t resist, and Walker pushed him into the hovering Black Maria, with the letters GZPD on the side. The rest of the criminals already in it, looked up and Walker narrowed his eyes at Danny. 

"You should have stayed out of my territory and handed over that map – now you and I got a problem. Your sentence is now _five_ thousand five hundred and fifty," Walker sneered and slammed the doors of the van. 

Danny sat up undisturbed and send his fellow inmates a calm look. They all scowled at him, but Danny wasn’t scared and simply turned human and took of the extra backpack his human-form was carrying. 

The inmates watched him with distrust as he pulled out a little leather pouch with deathblossom herbs and pipes from his arsenal of yeti gifts, and lifted it for them all to see. 

"Anyone wanna get high?" 

The hostile looks and scowls of the inmates lighted up instantly and Danny grinned by the easy bought goodwill from the ghosts’ criminals. 

Having learned a thing or two from his first time in prison, Danny knew how to make friends amongst the lower part of society and used this knowledge to his advantage. 

The eager hands made the dried leaves disappear quickly and the last of the deathblossom drug ended in an electronic robot hand. Danny looked up to meet green eyes and the owner grinning at him with metal teeth as square and lined as a military cemetery. 

"Long time no see, Whelp. Hard to recognize you with that beard." 

Danny scoffed, the past had really decided to come at him today, huh? "I could say the same about that new suit. Did the old one get outdated already?" 

Skulker grinned darkly, the old robot form completely renewed with more smoothly edges and bigger limbs. He had even taken up something looking like green flaming hair and Danny send the strange outfit a long look. 

Was that a skull necklace around his neck? 

"Is that how people dress now days?" Danny asked curiously and wondered if everyone wore soldier boots in the human world now. Wait...was those tight pants made of leather? Really? 

"Skulker doesn’t follow fashion," the hunter replied self-assured and pulled Danny down to the seat beside him with a dark grin, "I'm going to demand some new rocket launcher when I hand you over to Plasmius. He's going to shower me in new weapons when I bring you in." 

Danny rolled his eyes, some things didn’t seem to change over time. 

It was almost strange how he didn’t even feel affronted by this, but it could be that the time apart from everything in the Far Frozen and years of training amongst the yeti worriers had helped him back to a more clam and peaceful mindset. 

Made him wiser and brought back some of that youthful spirit he used to possess. Or maybe he had just been smoking to much deathblossom, he didn’t exactly know. 

The only thing he knew, was that he needed to go back to earth and see his sister and that he wanted to see what this new Walker-ghost was up to. 

He could catch up with Vlad and his plans for world domination later. 

"Still working for the old cheesehead?” Danny smiled, without any resentment or feeling of anger and scratched his long black beard, “what does he need you for nowadays? Help him cross the street?" 

"Make all the fun you want, prey. He's coming to get me out of prison and when he does, you will see just how capable he has become. He's only five pages away from completing the journal." 

Danny shivered and pulled out a snack from his backpack to nip on, "well, minus the one that burned in 1927. If he's lucky, it wasn't the key page to deciphering the secret of the way to the Elsewhereness and if he's extra lucky, he won't go completely down the drain when I burn the rest of them – want a yeti shaped cookie? They're homemade." 

Skulker scoffed drily, "you can't stop him, no one can. When he becomes the ruler of the worlds, I, Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter will become the human world’s greatest hunter as well...” 

Skulker eyed the offered treat hungry, “and yes, Skulker would like a cookie, please."

   
 

When Walker opened the doors to the Black Maria at the prison, he was furious to be meet by a cloud of deathblossom smoke and welcomed by the sight of goofy inmates, all high as fuck and munching cookies with shite-eating grins over some joke Danny was telling. 

" – and then the man gets really pissed off and says, ‘Officer, I couldn't help but notice your eyes are glazed. Have you been eating doughnuts?’" 

"Get that troublemaker to my office – NOW!" Walker growled and Danny snickered as the goons handcuffed him to drag him of. 

"Hey! You have to take me out for dinner first – I'm not that kinda guy!" 

That made the rest of the inmates break down into more laughter and Walker felt a nerve jump under his left eye. 

He was going to ruin that ghost-man.

   
 

Walker's office turned out to be a rather gloomy and dark place in Danny's opinion, but having been used to warm caves and the freedom of wide stretches of ice, could have made him a bit spoiled, he guessed. 

The prison was pretty much that – a prison. A huge purple square of bricks with tall barbed wire walls, a watchtower, correctional spotlights to keep the inmates in check and barracks for the guilty-found ghosts to cower in. 

Walker’s office was centered in the middle of the authority department around the tower and seemed surprisingly spartan, considered the wealth and luxury the human Walker had used to surround himself with. 

There was no sign of the 1920's comfort or glamor in sight and the only thing that testified to Walker’s human origins was the white attire. Now glowing with a ghostly hue. 

Danny watched the ghost walk back and forth, nose deep in his rule book and ranting about Danny's crimes against the Ghost Zone. Apparently, they were many. 

Danny wasn't worried, though. Just like human prison, he knew he could leave anytime he wanted (humans are ghosts in the zone and all that) and the freedom to go as he pleased gave him some time to take in the details of the site instead and get some sense out of the place. 

He turned his hand human and phased out of the chains to scratch his nose behind Walker's back, before the ghost could turn back to him. He hurried to phase his hand back into the metal again and turn it back ghost, as the ghost turned to face him. 

"A troublemaker like you belongs in here, punk. There might be chaos everywhere else in this Ghost Zone, but there will be order in my prison." 

"If ya say so," Danny replied nonchalant and watched his confiscated backpacks float by, "hey, is there any chance I could get my stuff back? My lunch is in that bag over there and it would be a real shame if it expired and made your office smell of rotten cheese." 

Danny reached tryingly for the sandwich in the backpack’s outer pocket with his hands still shackled to the chair, but Walker planted a firm boot on his chair and kept him stationary. 

"Consumption of food outside of the prison cafeteria is against the rules, son," Walker informed sternly and pushed the chair back over to make Danny face him, "if I were you, food would be the least of my worries. You’re in my prison now, punk. That means my rules are law – and you've just pissed off the law big time. And as the law, I am your judge, executioner, jury, executioner, jailer – and if necessary, your _executioner_." 

Danny tried his best not to laugh, this was pretty much their first meeting over again and Danny played out his old line, "pff, you said 'executioner’ three times. Hey, can I ask you a question? When did you spawn? – and more importantly, is there a little turf of hair up under that fedora? Your baldness doesn’t make sense, you had hair as a human. What up with that?" 

Walker wasn't amused, "talking nonsenses will get you nowhere, half-ghost – this is a prison, not a mental institution." 

The goons showed up at the door and Walker pushed Danny back into the chair, "lunch time, ghost-man." 

Danny send his backpack a longing look, but guessed he could survive on whatever food the prison served for a day. He still had one bag in his human-form, he wouldn’t need this one. 

The goons hovered at each side of him as he was escorted back to the prisons yard and Danny followed willingly as a lamb. The cafeteria seemed pretty typical as well and Danny looked around and noted the mixed looks from the inmates seated around him. 

He recognized one or two from the van and their glances was that of the more benevolent, while the rest either leered or took no notice of him what so ever. 

Danny could work with that and was released from the green cuffs in the middle of the cafeteria. Danny tipped his striped cap at them with a sarcastic rill of his eyes and walked to the line to get his tray of lunch. 

While the line made its progress by snail speed and the ghostly jelly and nuggets got distributed, Danny took the liberty to glance to the tables and tried to decide where to eat at. 

Danny's experience with the tables at Boarding school and the Sing Sing prison, had taught him some simple rules when it came to cafeteria tables. 

You had three options in total. 

First option was to play tough and sit by yourself – something that only actual toughness and available tables could prove possible. This option made it possible for you to stay out of trouble, but also exclude you socially from the rest of the place. 

Second option was to seek out the table of the weakest individuals and find refuge there. The loser table was always a place open for the flock mentality and the survival of the sheep in a wolf field was always to stay in a large group and try to stay hidden in the center. 

Danny had played the tough guy in human prison and sheep in school, but discovered, as a pleasant surprise, that he for the first time in his life had an opportunity to explore the third and golden option. 

Being invited to a table. 

Danny waved to the ghosts calling him over and the two ghosts gesticulating for him to get his ass over to the table, was both from the van, while the rest just accepted him, and made space for him in the middle. 

"Hey, ghost-man, got anything to pep up this dogfood on you in that nice backpack?" 

Danny allowed the two rings to transform his torso back to human and pulled his backpack into his lap, before making the rings change him back to complete ghost again, "sure thing, anyone want jerky? I got some chocolate to I think." 

The ghosts provided themselves with his gifts from the Far Frozen and Danny enjoyed his renewed popularity with a smirk. One of the ghosts from the neighbor table turned to look openly at Danny with a dark attitude and the halfa poked the ghost next to him with a nod. 

"Got any idea what that guy's problem is?" 

The ghost snickered, "oh him? He's probably after the bounty on your head. 60.0000 gold pieces for the one that can deliver you alive and unharmed." 

Danny rolled his eyes, having a pretty good hunch about who the person to place such money on his head was. 

The bounty hunter apparently got tired of staring and moved up to Danny with the rest of the tables watching. 

"So you’re the ghost-man, huh?" the whitehaired ghost asked and smirked behind the little black glasses. 

Danny guessed the guy had been a scientist or something before his death, based on the lab coat, crazy hairstyle and comical Austrian accent. 

The smirk on the scientist face was turned into a frown, when Skulker pushed him and took a threatening stand in front of Danny with a growl. Raised his voice for all to hear. 

"The bounty on this ghost-man is mine and if anyone wants to challenge Skulker for the right to his prey and want the gold for themselves, you will have to go through me first." 

Danny rolled his eyes, "wow, I feel so safe now. My own squeaky toy in shining ecto armor." 

The scientist scowled and more ghosts rose to back him up, "if anyone’s to get that gold it’s I; Technus! The master of all machines and electrical goods, using domestically such as refrigerators and washing machines, typically white in color – but also pastel shades, now that human fashion demands it!" 

"I could use that kind of money," a third ghost voiced and stood up with his own group behind him to take a stance. The three ghosts stared each other down and Danny stuffed himself with some jerky from the sideline. 

"This must be how pretty girls feel around gallas," he whispered to his side-ghost and moved out of the way as Skulker was jumped first. 

The three ghosts started beating up each other and their groups followed quickly after. Danny and the rest of the spectators hurried to move out of the way and form a circle. Soon everyone yelled with raised fists and chanted excited by the sight of a bloody prison fight. 

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" 

Danny expected half that the prison guards would interfere, but the armored ghosts kept their positions at the balconies and stands by the doors. They simply watched without interest and Danny guessed this was just another Tuesday evening to them. 

Being one against two groups and their leaders, Skulker was more than just outnumbered and the two other joined forces to take him out before each other. 

That didn't seem fair to the half-ghost and he handed his striped uniform cap to the ghost beside him and pushed up his sleeves. 

"Alright, time to break up the school boys." 

He picked up the nearest of the fighters and flung him to the side without problem, knocked out the next with a quick punch and froze the feet of a third. Danny worked his way slowly through the mass of fighting ghosts and reached the center with the help of four duplicates. 

Technus protested in surprise when Danny grabbed him by the collar and yelped as Danny threw him back into the crowd. The nearest ghosts seemed to have grasped that Danny wasn't a force to fuck with and drew back from Skulker who was caught on the floor. 

Danny helped him back on his feet and left the cafeteria with the hunter's arm around his shoulder, while the ghosts continued their fight undisturbed. 

Skulker spit out a screw and dried his metal lip for oil and ectoplasm, "pfh! My prey ceases to amuse me." 

Danny patted his head sympatric, "yeah, yeah and you're not leaning on me for support at all, I'm just walking very close to you. Don't worry, your pride is safe with me." 

Skulker grumbled something and Danny guessed a "thank you" would have been too much to ask for. They took one of the benches in the yard and the hunter popped his arm back into the socket with a hollow sound and tested his shoulder with a scowl. 

"When I hand you over and get the new weapons from Plasmius, those ghosts are dead meat." 

Danny transformed into his human form to give it some air and sighed tiredly, "you know I'm not going back with you, right?" 

Skulker scoffed drily, "I don't have to take you to him, I just have to finish my business here and wait for him to get here to bust us out, whelp. Skulker knows Halfas get stronger over time and you have had time enough for even that many ghosts to challenge you. Skulker knows when to step down. But Plamius is older, stronger and more cunning than you. He wants you back and he always gets what he wants." 

"Oh, please, we both know I can leave anytime I want." 

"Then, why don't you?" Skulker scowled and Danny shrugged halfhearted. 

"I don't know, I was curious to see what had become of Walker I guess...really I should go find my sister. This was pointless. This is just a prison, nothing serious." 

He pulled out his old wallet from his pocket and took out the old photograph of his mother and sister. He really should be going. He had already wasted enough time. 

Skulker eyed the wallet and the way Danny caressed the piece of beloved memory. 

Danny put it back into the old wallet and placed it back securely in his pocket, "what about you, Skulker? What kinda business is keeping you here of all places?" 

The hunter looked as if he was going to keep his cards close to his metal chest, but then a cunning look replaced his scowl. 

"Skulker is hunting a page," he revealed slowly, low enough for only Danny to here, "the rumor has it that one of Sojourn's pages has been confiscated by Walker and placed in his box of contrabands. Supposedly the one in his office." 

Danny could see where this was going, but couldn't help but spot the obvious flaw in the hunter’s tactic. 

"Alright, I see what is happening here. You're going to keep me here with the promise of finding a page and make me stationary in this prison by teaming up with you. Hoping that Plasmius will get here in time and not a second after we get the page." 

Skulker smirked, "if you want that page you will have to stay around, whelp. Walker isn't going to give it up freely and the enemy of my enemy is my friend, for now." 

“I don’t get you.” 

Skulker rose an eyebrow in question and Danny sighed, “you do realize that Vlad would find his pages faster if I wasn’t around, right? Even you have to admit he loses focus when we stumble into one another. If I were you, I would just get the page and keep to myself that you ever saw me. But that’s just me I guess…” 

Skulker didn’t reply and Danny suddenly smirked, "and by the way, there’s just one teeny-tiny problem with that plan of ours – what’s keeping me from just taking the page for myself right now and leave without you?" 

Skulker suddenly grinned wickedly, "this." 

The robot arm shot out and Danny blocked his face, believing that the hunter wanted to fight him, but then felt his pocket get lighter. 

Skulker held the wallet out for Danny to see, before opened his robot jaw wide and swallowed it. 

Danny changed into his ghost-form and grabbed him by the stripped shirt with a desperate scowl, "give it back!" 

The hunter simply grinned and shouted loudly, "PRISON BREAK!" 

That caught several guard’s attention and they flocked around them as Skulker kept yelling. 

Danny shook him angry and tried to get the hunter to open up, by grabbing his jaws in desperation "shut up and give me back my wallet, you blob!" 

Green ropes locked around them both and several guards knocked them to the ground with their bodies. 

Skulker snickered quietly under his share of guards, "if you want it back, you will have to trade it for the page." 

Danny sneered and yelped as he was shocked by serval sticks at ones. Danny had never been good at handling electricity. He had always feared getting shocked by electronics as a child and after the countless fights with Vlad, Danny had come to downright despise it. 

After his time in the Far Frozen, Danny had started to suspect that it had something to do with his ice core – an element that had a tendency to lead electricity like water and therefor a great weakness in his case. 

He groaned painfully as the guards dragged him across the yard and before he knew it, they had reached some darker part of the prison and he was thrown head first into an even darker cell. 

Danny looked back to see the stoic guards close the door and he sat back in the dark to the sound of the key turning. He waited for them to remove themselves and dusted himself off with a dry sniff. 

“Fine, I’ll get that page and make you eat it, asshole,” he muttered and turned human. 

The striped uniform was replaced by his warm fur cloths and Danny took of the warm skin jacket to just be in the pants and lighter shirt beneath. 

There was no actual time or count of day in the Ghost Zone, no clock or calendar to control the stream of time, but Danny had learned the natural rhythm of the place and waited patiently for his inner clock to tell him the time of night. 

If he was going to break into Walker’s office, steal the page and find the cell they had locked Skulker inside, he would need it to be as stealthy a mission as possible. 

Not wanting to much trouble or attention, even though they really couldn’t do him much while he was in his human form. 

But Danny didn’t really have that much time either and just wanted this over with. So he sat quietly in his cell like a good inmate, waited for a couple of hours to pass and song himself a song or two in the meantime. 

Played with a ball of a morphing ecto-energy in his hands and wrote “the badger was here” and “who’s got Walker’s nose?” on the walls with his ecto-ray. 

He snorted by his own handwork and decided that it was time for the human to come out to play and listened to the door. The sound of guards made him pout and he walked to the right wall instead. 

Danny pressed his hand through it without problem and walked through. 

And right into another cell. 

Danny’s ghost vison was a bit slower to unfold in human-form and to late he discovered that another prisoner inhabited the neighbor cell. 

He had barely transformed back to ghost before the huge ghost had tackled him with a growl and planted Danny securely to the floor with two large paws sporting some deadly long claws. 

Danny winced when a large wet snout and the smell of dog breath got close to his face and he turned his head to get away from the sight of large sharp teeth. 

The ghost then stopped and sniffed him, “amiko?” 

Danny still couldn’t speak a word of Esperanto, but taking that ‘amigo’ was Spanish for ‘friend’ he would see that the were-ghost hadn’t forgotten their last meeting. 

“Hey, Wulf,” Danny groaned beneath the ghost’s significant weight and the ghost hurried to get of him and help him back on his feet. Even dusted him off the best of his capability, taking that he himself was in nothing but dirty rags and chains. 

Danny looked him over in worry, “wow, looks like Walker never forgot about you. How long have you been down here?” 

Wulf began speaking his own tongue, but as Danny just stared blankly, that got old fast and they turned to the use of signals and simple words instead. 

As far as Danny could grasp, Wulf had been down here for quite some time and when Danny gestured for him to just make a portal to leave, the ghost shook his large head sadly and pointed to a collar around his neck. 

Danny had never seen a collar like that before, but taken that it had some similarities of Far Frozen technology, he guessed Walker or one of the guards had some kind of remote to control it with. 

“I’ll find the remote and get you out of here,” he promised and even though Wulf didn’t speak English, he seemed to get the point and grinned hopefully. Danny turned back human and phased out of the cell, and jumped into hiding when two guards walked close by. 

“Gotta stay hidden,” Danny whispered and turned back ghost to become invisible. He floated down the corridor and tailed the two guards, hoping that they would lead him straight to the office area. 

Lady Fortune seemed to be smiling at him for a change and he reached the watchtower without being stopped or discovered. Danny stopped before Walker’s office, turned back human and stuck his head in through the wall. 

The office was empty, and he took the last steps inside. 

“Alright, if I was a prison ward with control issues, where would I keep a box of earthly contrabands?” 

Apparently being a prison ward didn’t make you that smart and Danny facepalmed when a box of obvious items floated right past him. 

“I gotta stop taking these morons seriously,” he muttered and pulled the box to him. 

Most of the box’s content turned out to be completely harmless stuff, like books, cloths and electronics. Some Danny recognized, some not. Danny knew he might had missed some stuff going on in the human world, but surely it couldn’t have changed that much…could it? 

He ignored a little box with the letters ‘walkman’ on it and took back his backpack with some satisfaction. He reached the end of the box without finding any sign of the page and looked around for a box meant for ghostly contrabands. 

Again, Danny had to stop making up Walker as the genius he clearly wasn’t and simply accept that the ghost was an idiot. Who hides one of Sojourn pages in the first desk drawer!? 

The green page lighted up with ghostly glow by his touch and Danny read it with a frown. 

The detailed drawing of a box and the words ‘Pandora’s box’ told Danny all he had to know and he stuffed the page into his backpack. 

If Vlad got his hands on this page, he might be tempted to go take the box of horror for himself and Danny would rather not live in a world of horrors controlled by a cheesehead with megalomania. 

Seriously. It would be his teen years all over again, just global. 

He shook his head and rummaged around to find something remote-ly looking. Some devise that would match that of Wulf’s collar and get the hell outta here. 

A box of clothing made Danny light up as he recognized his own blue cloak and battle suit, and he hurried to change and leave the striped prison uniform behind. The box didn’t contain any remotes and Danny continued his search. 

“C’me on,” he mumbled and left the desk to check out the cabinets behind it instead. 

He grinned when a row of remotes turned up and as the stupid perfectionist Walker was, he had even quipped them with name tags. 

The seventh to the left sported the nametag “Wulf”, but the rest made Danny curious. 

“Huh, I wonder what happens if I…” Danny pressed the green button on a remote and waited a second. 

Nothing happened and he did the same to the four others to see if the first had just been broken. He pushed some more buttons before a hunch made him turn his head and look through the wide office window. 

The doors to the secured cell block was bust open by several large were-beasts and Danny couldn’t help but snort in laughter, when all the were-ghosts jumped the guards. 

So much for stealth – but a nice distraction nevertheless. Danny pushed all the buttons he could get his hands on, grabbed Wulf’s remote and smashed Walker’s chair through the wide window. 

The cowering inmates hiding in the yard looked up and Danny threw out some of Walker’s paperwork to make the desired effect. 

“PRISON RIOT!” he yelled and as hoped, the cowering flock of inmates realized the golden opportunity and turned into a wicked mob of criminals. 

The doors to the office burst open and Danny turned to the sight of… 

Danny threw his hands into the air in indignation, “you gotta be fucking kidding me! – is this the reunion of 1920’s or something!?” 

Bullet only replied with a sneer and Walker’s second in command send an ecto-blast at him. Danny dodged and saluted like a good scout, before phasing down the floor with a grin. 

Bullet’s shocked expression was replaced with the quarters of the watchtower and Danny hurried to turn ghost and shot into the yard. 

The scream of fleeing guards and chant of rebelling inmates filled the courtyard and Danny hurried to fly through, dodged a were-tiger, blasted two guards and shot into the secured cell blocks. 

And right into Walker. 

The ghost groaned by the collision, as they both knocked their foreheads together and landed on the floor in a pile of limbs. Danny hurried to scramble over him and get away, as Walker tried grabbing him, but Danny was fast as a weasel and slipped his hands with an inch. 

“Guards! After him!” 

“Should have taken me out to dinner first!” Danny shouted behind him and hurried down the cells. 

Skulker and Wulf’s ecto-signature got closer and it took Danny a second to understand why Skulker’s was coming at him so fast. The robot ghost glided in from a side corridor and hurried to get up beside him on the run. 

“Skulker likes the distraction,” he informed with a wild grin as they ran and turned with Danny down the corridor, “did you get the page?” 

“I’m not handing you nothing till you hand over that wallet,” Danny scowled and ducked his head for the incoming ecto-blast from the right, “do you have any idea how much that wallet has been through!? It’s an antique and all I own, and you just ate it, you asshole!” 

Skulker crackled and returned an ecto-ray with a shot from a stick he had stolen along the way, “relax, ghost-man. The human-made gold container is being stored in my chest with the rest of my food storage. Have you forgotten this is just a suit?” 

“Ohh, yeah,” Danny lighted up and grinned, ”then this will be easy.” 

Danny turned human on the second and made Skulker almost trip, as he threw himself into the hunter and came out on the other side of him with the wallet in hand. Danny ignored Skulker’s raging fit and took a turn to the right and phased into Wulf’s cell. 

The sound of Skulker’s shouts and the ecto-blast was instantly muffled, and Wulf looked up worryingly. Seeing that is was just Danny, he lighted up and tripped impatiently while Danny turned the remote in his hands, trying to figure out the right button. 

He pushed the most obviously – then hurried to lift his finger when Wulf was electroshocked and apologized quickly. The next set of buttons didn’t prove any more useful and the sounds outside had gotten closer. 

“Rapidu,” Wulf pleaded and Danny felt sweat form on his temples. 

“Give me a second! And I’m do –” 

The door to the cell blasted open and hit Danny square on. Wulf took a growling stand in front of his fallen form and Walker narrowed his green eyes to slits, “back down, Wulf.” 

The stern tone made Wulf cower a bit and he whined like a beaten dog, unsure what to do. Bullet pointed his hand at him and was hit in the back of the head by Skulker’s stick. 

Two guards grabbed the cyborg and Walker turned to Danny with an expression like a thundercloud. 

“Now you’ve done it, ghost-man. You’ve really pissed me off.” 

Danny lifted the remote with a blank stare, “yeah, I guess I’ve really pushed your buttons,” and pressed his thumb down. 

The lock to Wulf’s collar opened and the devise fell to the ground. The were-wolf’s scared frown turned 80 degrees around to a dark grin of canines and Walker hurried out of the way. 

The were-ghost jumped one of the guards who had been stupid/loyal enough to take Walker’s spot and the screams and ectoplasm soon filled the corridor. 

Danny stuffed the wallet into his pocket in a swift motion and tried to get around Walker and out after Wulf. Apparently ‘fool me twice’ wasn’t an option with the ward and he send Danny to the floor face first with a fist. 

Danny returned the gesture with a kick right in the jaw and began crawling like a soldier between the fallen guards littering the floor. 

“Wulf! C’me on, I need your help to get to Amity Park! We gotta go!” 

Danny yelped as a boot kicked him onto his back and pinned him down. 

“The only exit from my prison is the through the electric chair,” Walker sneered and added weight to the boot on Danny’s chest, “you really think you can just waltz in here and leave without consequences!? My Prison!? You’re dead, ghost-man!” 

Danny groaned and send the ghost a dark glare, his voice turning cold, “I was going to make this easy for you, taking I was part responsible for your death – but nothing is ever easy, now is it?” 

Walker’s boot phased through Danny’s chest as he transformed into human and the prison ward stumbled in surprise. Danny grabbed the leg and the cracking sound of broken bones joined the sounds of slaughter echoing in the corridor. 

Walker screamed in pain and collapsed to hug his broken leg close to his chest. Danny rose calmly and phased through the ghost without a care and Walker tried to grab him in vain. 

"Why can't I touch you!?" he yelled in a mix of pain and frustration, and Danny turned his head with an unkind expression. 

The blue eyes almost looking red in the dark. 

“The word you’re looking for is ‘halfa’. Meaning your rules doesn’t apply to me. You can’t hurt me anymore.” 

Walker stared, his voice lowering almost to a whisper, “who are you?” 

Danny turned back to him with a tired voice and lifted the ghost by the white collar, “I’m simply inevitable.” 

Walker’s green eyes widened when ice leaped from the halfa’s hands and the ghost only got one second to gasp, before his entire body was frozen solid. Danny turned his back on the ghost and went to meet Wulf down the corridor. 

The undead wolfman seemed to have run out of guards to maul and leaped towards Danny like some oversized puppy, happy to finally get out for a walk. 

“Kie al?” he asked and Danny tried emphasizing his request with clear sound and hands gestures. 

“Amity Park.” 

The were-ghost nodded, before slashing his claw through the air. A slice of the human world appeared and the ghost gestured for Danny to follow through before stepping in himself. 

Danny moved to get in and was immediately tacked by Skulker, who had hidden between the dead guards. They both tumbled through the portal and rolled down what apparently was a hillside. 

Wulf gasped surprised when the two ghosts came tumbling down and rolled past him. They rolled a couple of times without control until the hill ended in a mudpuddle and Danny pushed the robot of him to get his face out of the mud. 

“Argh! Urg! Jesus Crist! Now I got dirt in my mouth!” 

Skulker only grinned, clutched a muddy bundle to his chest and pointed his stick at Danny triumphally, “ha! Now I got both the page and the prey! I, Skulker! The greatest hu –” 

Danny’s hand on the ground formed a portal and send the bragging hunter down in free fall back to the Ghost Zone. 

Right above the prison courtyard.


	37. An old soul in the land of the young

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny once received a letter as a young boy  
>  _"When I turned fourteen the war broke out in Europe. The letters I’d received regularly from Yorkshire in England, stopped after my fifteenth birthday and for a long time I heard nothing. It wasn’t until five months later that I was called to the principal’s office and handed a telegram. Jazz had sent me a single ticket and five small words. **’Mom is sick. Come home.’** "_
> 
> But he was to late...  
>  _He crouched down and placed them as neatly as possible in front of the mausoleum. Yesterday's rain had made all surfaces shiny and dark, but Danny would have preferred that it had continued to rain today. It would have made more sense for him to stand in the rain in front of his parents' final resting place, than standing here in the sun and not knowing what to say._  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But life goes on and Jazz found love, while Danny made peace with Vlad  
>  _“I spent the time shifting between ghost training, homeschooling and hanging out with Vlad. Jazz was pretty glad we had worked something out, although I never told her exactly how. Her fiancé started to visit after the mourning timespan had ended and whaddaya know? He was actually a pretty decent guy. No worries there.”_
> 
> But there would soon after be reason to worry...  
>  _It was in vague colors and brown from age and use. It was an old newspaper cutting from a paper launching itself on the top as the ‘Daily mail’ with big gothic letters in bold. The article was accompanied by the grand picture of an aristocratic looking man with dark eye and a perfect smile at some grand evening. A hand was placed around the dark-haired youth’s shoulder and if Nichols hadn’t been aware of the nature of Vlad Masters, he would have taken the hand as friendly, not possessive. The young man on the picture held a strong resembles to the one sitting before him, but where his Danny had a somewhat childish glint in his eye and was emotionally collected, this Danny Fenton seemed almost dead. No spark of life behind them or smile in the corner of the soft lips. The pose was straight and his person well-kept, but other than that the person was absolutely hollowed out._
> 
> But even before Vlad, there were nightmares  
>  _It had been a cruel way to learn that things weren’t always divided in black and white or easy to tell only by appearance. The memory of Miss. Spectra would haunt Danny far into his youth and confuse him in more ways than one. If he closed his eyes, he could still see her red lips in front of him ..._
> 
> And meanwhile Danny fought his demons, Jazz never stopped thinking of him  
>  _The wish to see his sister suddenly made the screen change and he felt the lump in his throat return. Jasmine Thornwood stood before a grave with a black veil around her head. A large funeral procession behind her._  
>  _His funeral, he realized._  
>  _"Oh, Jazz," he whispered and caressed her pale face on the screen. She had been pregnant at that time, looking pale and tearful. He watched as she returned to her husband and one-year-old child. Kept visiting the empty graves with them as the years went by. Saw how her children grow up and his sister age to her full potential as a grown woman, now a mother of five._  
>  _The way she had styled her hair was so like their mother, that it pained him to watch and he felt tears form in his own eyes when she began working on a scrapbook._  
>  _It was a book of old pictures from their childhood and newer ones from newspaper of New Yorkshire and New York city. He knew all the articles by heart. Jazz collected them patiently. Glued them into her book and compared the pictures of the deceased Daniel Fenton to the living Danny Fenton...and then compared Fenton and Phantom_  
>  _Danny's breath hitched when she finally put the pieces together. She smiled as she came to know his secret. Came to know he was still alive and had been Phantom all along._  
>  _"She knew," Danny uttered quietly_
> 
> and last but not most important - Skulker had a job to do  
>  _“Kie al?” Wulf asked and Danny tried emphasizing his request with clear sound and hands gestures._  
>  _“Amity Park.”_  
>  _The were-ghost nodded, before slashing his claw through the air. A slice of the human world appeared and the ghost gestured for Danny to follow through before stepping in himself. Danny moved to get in and was immediately tacked by Skulker, who had hidden between the dead guards. They both tumbled through the portal and rolled down what apparently was a hillside. Wulf gasped surprised when the two ghosts came tumbling down and rolled past him. They rolled a couple of times without control until the hill ended in a mudpuddle and Danny pushed the robot of him to get his face out of the mud._  
>  _“Argh! Urg! Jesus Crist! Now I got dirt in my mouth!”_  
>  _Skulker only grinned, clutched a muddy bundle to his chest and pointed his stick at Danny triumphally, “ha! Now I got both the page and the prey! I, Skulker! The greatest hu –”_  
>  _Danny’s hand on the ground formed a portal and send the bragging hunter down in free fall back to the Ghost Zone._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hello christmas people :D  
> It's snowing at my place and it never freaking does around december - do I dare hope for a white Christmas?  
> Anyway - hope you're having a wonderful time and find this new chapter just as pleasing as i do  
> enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 1985, outskirts of town, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_

“I think it’s spring…” 

Danny stared out on the frost-covered fields and noted the naked threes. Wulf turned one of his ears in Danny’s direction, but didn’t get up from his curled-up position on the forest floor. 

Danny sighed and kneeled down beside the were-ghost to lean against him. The night was upon them and Danny was pretty most of the town below them was asleep and stores closed till morning. 

He’s chances of getting Jazz’s address from the post office wouldn’t be an option before a couple of hours. 

Amity Park lighted up below the hilltop Wulf had transported them to and Danny stared at the electric fueled city. Despite looking like a smaller town, it seemed surprisingly sufficient for its kind and Danny wondered just how and when cars got that easy to come by. 

Not a horse or normal wagon in sight. Gasoline ran everything now it seemed… 

“She must be an old lady by now,” Danny said and brushed off some mud from his sleeve, “if I’m lucky she’s still a Jazz Thornwood and haven’t remarried into another name.” 

Wulf just grunted, and Danny nipped at the inside of his cheek with his fangs. Lost in thought and old memories. 

What if she didn’t want to see him? 

“I think I’m going down there first thing tomorrow and ask around. Find a post office to find her address. Jazz has always been a well-liked person; most people of this place probably know her.” 

Danny had always been a little envious of that trait in his sister. No matter where they went, his sister had always seemed to have a natural talent to make their neighbors like her and adults adore her. 

As a pretty intelligent girl, not afraid to stand out, she had always been able to choose her company as she liked and made a strong impression on strangers, while Danny had kept to himself and only turned to the few people he already knew. 

The only social thing he had seemed to be better at than his sister, was being able to mingle with his own age group. Jazz, being that know-it-all and wonderchild she was, had made most her own age despises her out of jealousy or lesser worth. 

It was hard standing next to Jazz and not feeling like a failure. And since most her own age couldn’t stand up to her, they singled her out or showed her their teeth. 

Adults had always been much warmer towards her, admiring her for her skills and showered her in attention for her eagerness to learn from them. 

Danny smiled by the memories, knew he must have looked like such a disappointment next to her. 

If he had been the girl and she the boy in the Fenton family, she might have been running Vlad’s empire by now and become the world’s next business juggernaut. 

He could then had been the little halfa mistress of Vlad’s house and learned how to sew and keep a household for his husband. 

Maybe even given him little half-ghost children. A cursed heir for a cursed man. 

How strange fate was. 

Wulf’s large body didn’t give of any warmth, but his steady core pulse and snoring had slowly, but steady lulled Danny into a tired state. His breathing became slower and soon he was sleeping as well. 

Dreaming of a class room and a piano. 

_“My and here I believed I was going to teach a talented child,” Spectra cooed and chuckled as Danny pressed a wrong key on the piano, “you really are a disappointment, where is that soul of yours? The passion to play and bring music to life?”_

_Danny hung his head, “I don’t know, I knew this piece when we started, but I can’t remember it anymore. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”_

_“Oh, don’t be a little silly head,” she protested and forced him gentle back into the chair, “being a little depressed and stupid is no excuse for wasting a talent. Now try again. Yesssss…”_

_Danny sighed by the feeling of depression and felt as if all life was leaving him in this cold classroom. Spectra inhaled slowly from the feeling of Danny’s life running into her hands on his shoulders and ignored the mist coming from his little lips._

_Her hands left his shoulders to creep down his arms and Danny blinked confused, as her hands ended up on his chest and began roaming._

_Spectra grinned by the future prospects of sucking this boy for lifeforce for eternity to come and congratulated herself of having discovered this unicorn among ghosts for a third time that day._

_Her very own halfa._

_Now all she had to do was slowly make him use to her touch and keep him close with little lies and her authority as a teacher. Her hand reached just above his heart and she felt it hammer with such humanlike beats._

_“Miss?” Danny asked confused and Spectra woke up from her dark daydreams and returned her hands to his shoulders, “now, don’t stop, Danny. Play it again and please don’t interrupts me. You wouldn’t want your step father to hear you have been a bad boy, now would you?”_

_Danny shook his head and stared down at the polished keys. The little face of conflicted feelings suddenly changed to indifference and he stopped playing._

_He already knew how this was going to play out and unfold over the next few months of his long-lost youth._

_Knew how her little lies would infest his mind and make his view of his mother and sister worsen by the day, as she convinced him they had taken Vlad’s side over him._

_Knew that her threats of telling Vlad he had misbehaved would make him force himself to endure her touches and beat himself up with confusion and sexual questions he had been to young to ask himself._

_But just as he knew all this was in the past, he knew what that was only that._

_His past._

_“You were such a manipulating bitch,” he sighed, and as the teen left the chair, a grown man’s eyes glazed through those blue orbs._

_Danny sighed again as he ran a hand through his black hair and sent the ghost an insensible glance, “I’m not afraid of you or Vlad anymore. You’re dead and he’s lost. You can’t hurt me anymore or misuse me now. I’m over you. Now fuck of._

_The teacher and class room vanished, and Danny was young and careless again, swimming by the dead sea._

_Tucker laughed as Danny splashed him with saltwater and pushed Danny over. Sam watched from the beach, reading a book of poems and enjoying the warm sand, the sun had heated up during the day._

_In the sundown, the beach almost seemed bathed in red and shadows, making it both a tropical and mysterious sight to behold._

_They were only three weeks into their annual grand tour and the whole learning thing had already been pushed in background by the tourist mood and made them stay at the beach, rather than study the place’s ruins and history._

_“Hey, Sam! Leave the fiction and come join some reality with us!” Danny had called from the water and she tipped her large sunhat with a wry smile._

_“My bathing suit is to vulgar for me to drop the blanket,” she just said and turned a page in her book, “you heard the beach police. If I stand up again it will be more than just a 6-dollar fee.”_

_Danny and Tucker had sulked, but then a shared thought had made then exchange cunning smiles and they dived under._

_Sam was too busy with her reading to register they had left the water and squealed in surprise when both of them had come from behind and grabbed her by the arms._

_“The beach police can’t control you if you’re beyond the sand!” Tucker grinned and the two fourteen-year-old hurried into the waves with their friend and her scandalous two-inch-above-the-knees bathing suit._

_Sam returned rom the water with her long braid sticked to her back and she ran a hand over her face to get some of the saltwater of. Danny noted how the water had made her black wool bathing suit a bit showing and blushed a bit._

_She noticed as well and replied by splashing them both with a dark grin._

_“I’m gonna get you for this – behold the wrath of Cthulhu!” she roared, and the two boys fled from her massive water attack in laughing fright._

_“She’s been reading Lovecraft again!” Danny warned Tucker and they parted to give one of them the chance of survival, “run for your life!”_

_“Run?” a deep baritone asked amused, “where are they going to go?”_

_Danny stopped on the beat and turned around with wide eyes. Dan Phantom stood in the waves with a calm smirk and his two friends frozen by his side. Both of them looking at him without blinking and expressions frightful._

_Before he could take a step, they both sank into the water without a sound. Danny lost his breath and scrambled forward to dive under after them._

_His hands found the sand under the low water and he tried digging in panic, tried his best to find the slightest sign of hands or hair. He was almost out of air and ready to turn ghost, but then he felt gloved hand pull him back up._

_“Let me go!” Danny shouted and tried to get out of the hold, “I can still make it. I can still go back!”_

_Dan scowled at him and pulled him into the air, “what? Go back for them? They're doomed anyway. And you aren't going anywhere if you can’t even face your own sister by now.”_

_Danny struggled to breath as Dan’s hand began to tighten around his neck._

_“In fact …you aren't going anywhere at all,” Dan grinned and pulled him face to face with the dark specter, “face it, without me or Vlad to guide you, you’re just as lost as the humans around you. Doomed to repeat your mistakes over and over again till you run out of people to love and people to even know you’re name at all.”_

_“You can say what you want,” Danny sneered through gritted teeth, groaned and wheezed to get air, “your time is over. I'll never turn into you again! Never!”_

_That only made Dan’s smile widen, “of course you will. It's only a matter of time. And time is all you have left, isn’t it? All eternity to lose your mind and realize the bane of your existence…”_

_Danny shivered as his dark side whispered into his ear, “that no matter how many people you safe and no matter how many lives you sacrifice your own for – they will never **accept** you.”_

_  
_

_A woman with burning hair appeared behind them and Danny felt the last air leave his lunges as she looked up at him with empty eye holes and melting flesh._

_“Danny…I’ll see you there.”_

Danny’s fingers found black fur and he wriggled desperately to get out from under the Wulf’s weight and back to a position where he could breathe again. 

The were-ghost mumbled something, barely registering that Danny was doing his best to get him of him and turned over, leaving Danny sprawled on the cold ground gasping for breath. 

The adrenaline from the nightmare and air loss still sat heavily in him and made him lay still and staring into the dawning sky for a minute or two. 

As his breathing calmed down to something more normal, so did his heart and soon the dark lines of the nightmare lifted and left him to his regular state of mind. 

“Don’t think about it…” he whispered and inhaled slowly, exhaled snakingly, “don’t think…” 

Wulf stirred next to him and Danny sat up, shrugged the last sleep of him and looked ahead as the sun began to rise in the horizon. Might as well get up, now that he couldn’t go back to sleep. He reached for his backpack and began roaming it quietly. 

There wasn’t much food left, but it would be enough to satisfy both he and the grown were-ghost. Wulf would have to seek his next meal elsewhere and Danny would have to return to civilization if he wanted any lunch, but at least breakfast was covered. 

His hand came across a piece of paper on the bottom of the backpack and he lifted it up, thinking it was the page he had taken from Walker. 

Only it wasn’t. It was just a drawing of the Far Frozen, that one of the yeti cubs had made for him as a sendoff gift. Danny packed it away gently and started searching for Sojourn’s page. 

When he didn’t find it right away, he emptied the bag and felt a hand grab his heart in a tight grasp. 

It wasn’t there. 

Danny transformed into his human form and reached back to grab the other backpack on his back and stiffed. 

It was gone. 

“What?” Danny mumbled, “but…who?” 

The answer came almost immediately, and he groaned. Last night’s fight with Skulker coming back to him and hitting him in the face with the obviously. 

Skulker had jumped him from behind and cradled something covered in mud before Danny had send him back into the Ghost Zone. 

_"Ha! Now I got both the page and the prey!"_

Danny facepalmed. He had understood Skulker’s rant as him having Danny next to him and therefor the page – not that Skulker had actually held the page in his hand himself. 

“And I’m not going back for him,” he stated stubbornly and sighed annoyed. Fuck that page. 

Jazz was more important. 

Wulf addressed him, and Danny turned to the awakened ghost, gestured for him to join him for breakfast. 

Wulf showed a great appetite and just as Danny had expected, the last of the yeti food vanished like dew in the sun and both of them stood to walk to the end of the hill side in the dawning morning. 

Both full and ready to continue on with their ventures. 

Just not together. 

Wulf send him a sad look, obviously disheartened about leaving him again so soon and Danny patted his shoulder with an equal expression. 

“It’s okay, Wulf – I’m sure we’ll meet again one day, immortal and all that.” 

“Amico,” Wulf replied and pulled him in for a bearhug. 

Danny wrapped his arms around the ghost likewise and guessed this was the closest he would ever get to actual have a real dog. 

They parted as Wulf formed another portal for himself and Danny waved with a forced smile and saw the were-ghost slip into another realm, place, dimension or just sphere. 

The last glimpse of the were-ghost's portal closed with a crisp sound and the early morning was laid almost silent. Almost serene. 

Danny stared at the spot for a long second, before he finally got the courage to move his feet and he started walking down the hill, one foot in front of the other to this city call Amity park. 

Without the ghost to keep him company, Danny felt the loneliness creep in on him again and he adjusted the leather strap of his backpack with a stern expression. 

As his lonely stride took him closer, Danny reached the outskirts of town and he was greeted by a large billboard, cheerily welcoming him with the slogan; _‘Welcome to Amity Park – a safe place to live’_

Danny rose an eyebrow, “a safe place to live? Why, they got some kinda reinforcement to keep them on top of crime? Corruption...gangsters?" 

The sign didn't answer him, it was just a billboard after all, but something about the overly happy couple smiling down at him, as if there was more than just their paycheck depending on it, made him slightly alert and a bit uncomfortable. 

People shouldn't be this cheery. That's just not right. 

Danny suppressed a shiver and began following the sidewalk deeper into town. 

Sleek cars in hard colors of all shapes drifted past him in high speed and Danny watched with interest as he came to understand the light system that navigated the cars instead of a policeman, like he had been used to back in his own time. 

Lights in general seemed to play a greater part now than he remembered and he stared himself blind at all the shops displays and windows lighting up in various spectrums of colors, as the citizens woke up to greet the day and seize their routines. 

Newspaper stands opened for humans to get the daily injections of gossip and the latest course of the world, while taxies picked up people for work and still drove like devils to get their client delivered on time like they always had. 

Children left their homes to go to school and get fed up with whatever knowledge that was required in this age of humans, while their parents walked in the different direction to head in for paperwork and offices, or to go to the early shifts and fill in roles like mailmen, garbage collectors, shopkeepers, or simply teachers. 

It humored Danny though, to see that both men and women was leaving for work, not just the man of the house. 

Being used to living in a world where women was required to stay at home and take care of the house, while the man provided, it was strangely fresh and new to see all these women going on with their own jobs and add gears to the town’s working systems like it was nothing special. 

Danny turned his head around to get it all and almost got run over by a bunch of adolescents. 

"Get out of the way, grandpa!" the leader yelled at him and dodged Danny at high speed along with his friends. 

Danny stared after them and their magical boards. Realized it was small wheels that made them pick up speed and carried their riders down the street. 

Being curious by nature, Danny wanted to know more and stopped the next board-riding child coming his way. 

"Hey, kid – stop for a second." 

The boy pressed the end of his board into the asphalt and stopped as Danny blocked the way. The boy was much younger than the group who had passed earlier and lucky for him – wasn't as bratty. 

"Whazz up, mister?" the Afro-American boy asked freshly and popped something that looked like a blue bubble out of his mouth. 

Danny blinked surprised when the bubble burst and splattered out on the child’s face, the kid then sucked it back in and chewed on like that was normal. 

Guess it was. 

"The board you're standing on," Danny began and the boy kicked the board to make it flip into his hand. 

"My skateboard?" 

"Yeah," Danny replied and studied the underside of the board, reading all the little stickers and tags curiously, "how do you ride it? How does it work?" 

The boy gave Danny an odd look, "...why ya asking?" 

"Hey, I'm just curious," Danny defended and shrugged, "never seen one before and got interested. Does everyone ride skateboards around here?" 

The boy rocked on his heels – gummi shoes, not leather, Danny noted. 

"I'm actually not s'pose to chat with strangers, mister – and Halloween isn't until six months, ya know?" 

Danny looked down himself and got the point. Compared to the people one the street, he looked like a caveman. The skin clothing and long beaded beard didn't seem to mix well with all these denim and colorful shirts around him. 

Long hair and unkempt beards seemed to be in, but with a black bead almost reached his waist, Danny was apparently stretching it to the limit. 

"I just got back from a long travel," Danny admitted lamely and the boy shrugged. 

"Whatever – Gotta go before my homeboys gets trippy." 

"Wait!" Danny shouted after him, "where do I find the nearest post office?" 

The boy just pointed down a street and rushed away on his 'skateboard'. 

Danny sighed and began walking in the given direction. More people had begun to fill the street and Danny felt a bit ridicules as the stares began to turn his direction and people started talked behind his back. 

Danny picked up something about "bum", "Vietnam veteran", “hippy” and "protester". Not knowing if that was something positive or not, Danny decided just to ignore it and continue on with his search. 

He found the post office more by chance than anything and walked into the place with open interest. The office looked nothing like he was used to and when he asked the front desk for Jazz's address, the clerk looked like he had been asked something off. 

Danny was then directed to a box where a screen showed little moving numbers and letters, and Danny stared in fascination while the clerk typed in Jazz’ name and made the letters jump around. 

Danny had tried some look alike technology back at the Far Frozen, but now that he was back in the human world, it became clear to him that the Yetis had fallen behind at some point and most of their things – but not all – had become outdated compared to the human world. 

Danny found Jazz's address after some search on the “computer” and Danny thanked the clerk before he left the post office with a paper map over the city. Apparently, Jazz lived in the downtown part of Amity and the walk would take him a couple of hours by foot. 

He could fly there and spare himself the trouble of course, but his curiosity made him continue on in his human form and he watched the new strange world around him with the same interest as a spectator or tourist in a tropical place. 

"Halloween isn't until six months..." Danny mumbled to himself, something about the boy’s words making him feel like he had forgotten something important. 

Danny kept mumbled to himself, trying to figure it out (while creeping people around him out with his ominous mumbling) until the answer presented itself to him, as he walked by a small newspaper stand. 

The paper fresh from the press was stacked up around the stand and the date on the covers stood out black on white. 

_**‘12 April 1985’**_

Danny stopped and stared a bit. Letting the information seeped in slowly. 

"I'm 84 now…" he concluded and then nodded slowly to himself, " and apparently, it’s my birthday tomorrow. Then I’ll be 85…" 

"Going to buy anything or are you just gonna hang there?" the man at the stand asked and adjusted his strange looking cap. 

Danny eyed the "I <3 NY" on the cap’s front and decided that he wanted one of those ridicules hats. 

"How much for the Amity Times and a pack of camels?" Danny asked and the man seemed to warm up a bit as he understood Danny was a potential customer. 

Weirdly looking, but still a customer. 

"3,11$ – if ya want a doughnut and coffee to go along, it’s gonna be 7,11$ total." 

Danny searched his backpack with some worry, he didn't have any human money on him now he thought about it, "how much is gold standard today?" 

The man rose an eyebrow, "come again?" 

Danny handed him a nugget of pure gold the size of an egg, the only useful valuate in the Ghost Zone. 

"How much will this give me?" 

When Danny continued his walk, he was then equipped with not just one doughnut, but three large boxes of them, an eight-pack of Prince cigarettes and tall cup of coffee to go. 

He adjusted the cap on his head and straightened the white T-shit with the red dot on his chest with a smile. Felt the weight of the magazines and newspapers in his backpack, one of each the stand had to offer and found a bench to sit down and enjoy his sugary lunch. 

"The doughnuts taste the same," he noted as he ate his way through the first box and stuffed the last bite into his mouth. 

He looked around as he washed the doughnuts down with coffee and tried getting his head around the feeling of being an old man. He didn't feel that old, but the kids could be on to something when they had called him "grandpa". 

Danny watched an elderly couple walked pass him with a little dog in leash and tried imagining himself old and grey like that. 

For some reason, an image of Vlad in his silver-gray prime appeared before his eyes and Danny frowned, wondered if he would look forty too if he colored his hair silver. 

He had walked past enough windows to know the long black beard and hair made him look somewhat old, but the lack of wrinkles and grey kept him from reaching a realistic image as a man past his visible forties. 

Danny shook his head and turned his cap backwards like he had seen the children around him do it. He handed the last two boxes of doughnuts to a homeless man sleeping on the bench next to him and continued on his walk for his sister’s address. 

The closer he got the more nervous he felt and a part of him regretted eating all those doughnuts, as his guts twisted and made him queasy with anxiety. 

She would be old. Two years older than him, but the only one of them looking a day over thirty. He tried imagining her with white hair, winkles and all the handicaps an elderly woman could suffer, but the scenarios got to cruel, so he stopped just as fast as he had begun. 

There was no use torturing himself about it. 

He had promised himself that he would find her and that was it. 

She knew he was part ghost, having followed his ghostly carrier and figured out his secret and all that. Meaning this wouldn’t be as awkward as it could be – him being young and all. But the important part was that she knew. 

That she had tried to take the first step – although unknown to him. 

She had tried to find him, seek him out. She had wanted to see him again despite everything he had pulled her through. 

The corpse-less funeral. 

The silence for years. 

Having to discovered he was alive through newspapers... 

Then lose him again a day before their reunion at the prison. 

Man was he an asshole or what? 

All the excuses about wanting to stay away to keep her safe seemed a bit thin and pathetic now, and he hung his head in shame. Why had he stayed away for so long? Why had he never called her? Wrote a letter? 

He didn't know. Something had always keep him from it. Made him push it away when the idea popped into mind. Danny had always been convinced she would be safer – happier without his presence in her life, but now it felt like betrayal. 

He had betrayed her. Him, her own brother and only family. 

He had let her down big time. He would understand if she wasn't going to greet him with open arms. Smacking the door in his face would actually be required. Hard and right in his face, nothing he didn't deserved. 

The wonders of the modern world seemed to pale in pace with his dark thoughts and Danny sighed as he passed a window of display. Stacked boxes of moving pictures staring back at him and showing him various scenarios. 

He looked at them for a time and frowned when one of the screens showed a blond reporter warning people about ghost attacks in upper Amity. 

"A place to feel safe, huh?" he muttered and then blinked a bit scandalous when one of the screens showed him a bunch of women in nothing but panties dancing on a scene around poles. 

It quickly turned to a man and a woman in the midst of intercourse, then a young woman showing of her naked body and touching herself shamelessly. 

Danny turned to the rest of the sidewalk to see if anyone else was alarmed by this outrageous display, but no one seemed the least bothered about it and Danny hurried past the shop. 

The next shop turned out to sell nothing but dildoes, lingerie and sex toys, making Danny walk even faster with a blush. 

What a time to live in. 

It was long past noon when he finally rounded the last street corner and reached the right street name. Danny looked from the map to the street, to be sure it was the right place and packed it away with a fast beating heart. 

The red brickhouse rose before him and a well-kept lawn greeted him welcome with its own tranquility. It seemed like a nice neighborhood in his opinion – not as fancy or expensive like he had expected though. 

Maybe Jazz and her husband Dean had gone down in standard? Fallen from upper to middleclass during the time he was gone? 

The many possibilities filled his head and he wondered what had happened to the Thornwoods. Was Dean Thornwood even still alive and living here? Danny read the mailbox. 

_J. Thornwood_

_D. Thornwood_

Apparently, he was, although the last name seemed newer than the letters making up Jazz's name. Danny decided not to dwell on it and walked up the little path to the stairs by the door with his heart up his throat. 

Beating almost painfully and making him choke. 

"Hey, Jazz, long timer no see," he tried, but discarded it almost immediately, "no to casual...." 

"Jazz, I know you have been looking for me for years and thing got out of hand – but I'm here now right?" 

Danny facepalmed. Could he sound more cold? And years? It had been freaky 58 years since the prison alone! 

"Jazz...I'm sorry. I'm an idiot and if you want me to leave then..." Danny closed his eyes, took a deep breath and tried to get his nerves to calm down and make him think. 

"Jazz...I'm home," he said and wondered if that was true. Home...did he even have one? 

"...fuck it," he muttered and pressed the doorbell. 

The wait for her to open the door was almost to slow and fast at the same time. Danny didn't even know if he wanted her to open or not, divided between wanting to face her and running away in shame at the same time. 

What time was it again? Maybe it was a bad time, they could be eating or doing something important. He would be prying then, wouldn't he? An uninvited guest showing up and disturbing the peace. 

Disturbing her life actually. Fuck… how he was going to handle this? And worse – how would she handle this!? How would he feel if his long lost selfish sibling just showed up out of the blue without a word and – 

"Yes?" 

Danny anxiety dulled a bit by the unfamiliar face in the door. 

It was a woman in her twenties, maybe early thirties. Sky blue eyes, long black hair in a high ponytail and soft cheeks. Pretty, but somewhat tough looking with those tight denim pants and oversized blue shirt bound in a knot around her waist. 

Danny didn't see anyone behind her and refocused on the woman. 

She gave him an all but subtle look over, “nice try, but it’s April. Anyway, aren’t you a little too old to go trick and treating, mister?” 

“You have no idea” Danny muttered and spoke up, “listen, is Jazz Fenton living here? No wait – Jazz Thornwood? Jasmine?” 

She sent him an unreadable look with those piercing eyes of hers, almost icy blue “and how do you know my granny again?” 

Danny took a second to understand what she had just said and closed his mouth, stared at what apparently was his own grandniece. The raven hair and blue eyes suddenly coming back to slap him in the face with its obviousness. 

The gens on Jack Fenton's side running wild in her veins and the nimble form of his mother shining through, just like himself. 

How could he have forgotten the detail about Jazz having children? And the possibility of an adult granddaughter living with her nonetheless? 

Danny's family situation seemed to have turned upside down on the minute and he rolled it over in his head. He had more than Jazz in his life now. He still had family other than a sister. 

The sudden spark of hope made him take a huge chance, he normally wouldn't have risked. He took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes so like his own. 

"I'm Daniel Fenton. Jazz's little brother." 

His honesty was meet with a scowl, "yeah right and I'm like the queen of England. Nice try." 

"No seriously," Danny pressed and fumbled to get his wallet out of his pocket, "I'm her brother. I know I don't look like it –" 

"You think?" she grunted sarcastic. 

" – but it’s the truth, okay? I haven't seen her for years and I need to let her know I'm alive, that I'm here – look, I'm sorry to come here and disturb you, but could you please tell her I'm here? Danny, just tell her Danny's here. Please." 

The woman blocked the way in when he tried to peak behind her and pushed him back with a hand, "hey, back of, dickhead. Okay, one – I don’t have to do anything and two – take your lying ass somewhere else. Her brother? Who the fuck does you think you’re fooling?” 

"But it’s true," Danny pleaded, "I promise it’s the truth. You don't understand!" 

"Oh. I understand," she sneered and moved to close the door, "and now you got to understand that I'm gonna call the cops if you don't make like a tree and leave!" 

Danny more than acted on impulse than anything and placed his foot in the door, prevented her from closing it shut. 

"Get lost!" she shouted and pressed to crush his foot. Danny didn't as much as flinch and just pushed a piece of paper into her unwilling hand. 

"Show her this and tell her I'm here, please," he sighed and removed his foot. 

The door shot close with a bang and Danny stared at the door for a long time. Then moved to sit down at the stairs. Waiting for his sister to either reject him or come talk to him.

   
 

On the other side of the door, Dani Thornwood was breathing heavily, the fear still making her chest tighten and her hands shaking. 

The lunatic outside could easily have pushed his way in, but he hadn’t, and she thanked the heavens for that. 

She made sure for the second time that all the locks on the door was secured and listened for a second, but didn't find any sign of him still standing by the door. She moved away from it slowly and pushed her side-bangs out of her face. 

The piece of stiff paper scratching her temple. She looked down at it and found that it was a black and white photograph. A woman and two children displayed on it. Dani scoffed and threw it on the floor. 

Turned around on her heels and stumped back into the kitchen, where her dinner now had turned cold and clammy. 

She threw the pasta dish out with a scowl and pulled out and old box of takeout from the fridge instead and munched on some day-old noodles with more force than necessary. 

Added a generously amount of chilly source now she was at it and turned up the volume on the small busted TV in the kitchen. 

_“The tickets to Madonna’s first concert tour ‘Virgin Tour’ is now on sale and the star is on her way to New York, where her first concert will take place –”_

She listened with a half ear and walked past granny’s portrait in the hallway, on her way to the living room. Placed the now empty china box on one of the many moving boxes and took back up the work of sorting all the things out. 

Finding out what she wanted to keep and what not. The routine of the sorting work, soon made her nerves calm down again and she forgot about the crazy intruder for a little while, as she made up her mind if she wanted to keep any of her granny’s cloths. 

Picking out a few shirts and belts she might use, she discarded the rest for the recycling box and moved one to some of the heavier part of the moving work. 

Books. And that a great deal of them. 

Dani looked them over one by one and picked out a few for herself. As an astronomy teacher at the local high school, psychology wasn't really her field, but she couldn't really get herself to throw them out either. 

The old books of thesis and knowledge of the deeper human conscious still reminded her of meaningful times and the shelves in the second bedroom already looked out of place without them to fill up the space. 

"Ugh, I need a second opinion," she groaned and placed them away for 'later'. Just like half the stuff she had already tried to sort out. 

Deciding that the old – maybe even expensive? – tomes could wait, and the easier work of loose papers and old junk could take up her time now. 

Some of the old picture frames from Granny’s room popped up and Danny picked out the photograph to place into a photo album later. 

The sorting went a lot faster now that she didn't have to focus on the thing’s memorial value and most of the first two boxes was already thrown into the 'burn box' and 'important papers' when she stumbled across an old dusty book. 

It was large enough to be one of the tomes, but to light to get dumped into that pile unnoticed. 

She opened it with interest and found that it was a photo album. Curiosity made her turn the light pages and before she knew it, she had seated into the deep couch and was deep into spying on her granny’s past. 

She recognized the newer ones as vacation and holyday pictures of their family, Dani herself as a small child and her parents still married and living together. Granny smiled with the three-year-old Dani on her lap and the grown Dani smiled to. 

Flipped the pages and found some child pictures of her mother. Grandpa Dean standing before the red brick house with paint on his pants and a brush in his hand. 

Dani didn't really remember him, but Granny had never said a mean word about him and he looked cool enough on the pictures. Old and gentleman-like in a jacket far outdated and grey hair. 

Her grandmother no better in her loose pink dress and hideous think-heeled shoes. Old woman pearls around her neck, matching her earrings and headband. 

Dani snorted by the crazy amount of wedding pictures that popped up next. Her parents looking like ghosts in those faded pictures of black and white. 

They looked happy though...young love and all that. If one looked closely, you could even see the little lump on her mother's stomach and guess the reason why they had married so young. 

Dani rolled her eyes. _Their love child, my ass._

The old guilt of being the reason her parents married in the first place threatened to creep in, but she had long since come to terms with the fact that her parents was dipsticks and couldn't push their shitty problems down on her, just because it was more convenient for them and brushed it off. 

God knows she should have moved out of their separated houses and into granny's place years ago. Would have spared her a lot of heartache and teenage trauma. 

She flipped to the next page and watched as her granny got younger. Her and her daughters by the beach. Her and grandpa Dean riding horses. Drinking tea in some garden. 

A very large garden. 

Dani guessed this was from before they moved from England to live in Amity Park. A picture of a grand mansion/castle coming up. Looking all romantic and shit. A large party of fancy dressed guests gathered around the wedding couple. 

Her granny and grandpa all young and classy, rose on his chest and a matching bouquet in her hand. Danny searched the old photograph for details. Squinted her eyes as a person caught her gaze. 

A tall man with a handsome face standing right beside the bride...Dani's great grandfather maybe? 

He didn't look like granny though. The aristocratic face and white hair fixed in a neat ponytail didn't ring any Fenton bells of recognition and Dani tried finding great grandmother to see if her granny had gotten her looks from her instead. 

But unlike grandpa Dean, Dani's granny didn't seem to have any other family represented at her side of the picture, other than the strange man and a grown boy by her side. 

The young man standing in between granny and Mr. pony tail, with the man’s arm on his shoulder seemed a lot more Fenton-like and Dani could see where she had gotten her dark hair and bright eyes from. 

He didn't smile at the camera – none of them did – but there was something in his features still that spoke of youthlike energy and the way he centered her granny and the man screamed of a happy family. 

Dani picked out the picture and turned it around to read the handwritten info on the back. Granny’s old curly handwriting informing her of the date and guest gathered at the party by name from left to right. 

"Mr. Masters," Dani read, a little bell ringing. 

Hadn’t her mother once said something about granny being adopted as a young girl? Dani couldn't really recall and found the young teen's name easily, as he was the only other Fenton name represented. 

_Daniel “Danny” Fenton._

Dani stopped. The lunatic from outside returning to her mind. Hadn’t he called himself Danny? Dan? Daniel? something? 

"It's just a coincidence," she muttered to herself, Daniel wasn't that unique a name really, "maybe he's just made some homework on granny to seem more convincing." 

Yeah, that was probably it. What a weirdo. 

She continued to flip the pages to watch more wedding pictures. The tall handsome man and the boyish teen returning again. Looking like they were having a good time together. 

Dani envied them a bit. Couldn't recall ever being that happy around her own dad or mom. 

Older pictures made the next pages and Danny watched how time turned back for her granny. Mr. ponytail and boyish-Fenton reappeared on a family picture along with what had to be granny and Dani snickered a bit over the ridicules large bow on her granny's head. 

Having been told by the old lady herself, that she used to wear pink ones, looking totally misplaced in her already red hair. Dani's joy died down a bit as her eyes went to the man and now small Fenton boy. 

The fresh bright eyes and happy demeanor from the previous pictures now gone. Danny Fenton stared into the camera with a sour expression and Mr. Masters seemed stoic, if not cold. The only one still somewhat cheery was her granny. 

All young and girly. 

Dani sighed, "looks like they had something to work out before they got all goody goody". 

The misery only seemed to continue on the younger the Fenton kids became, and the last photograph seemed to be the most severe of all. A pale woman with a hard gaze sat on a chair with two children standing on either side. 

A young girl with a bow on her head and little boy whose hand had turned blurry. 

The picture seemed familiar, but Dani couldn't recall from where and turned on some light as it had turned dark outside. She checked her slim leather wristwatch. 

Far past midnight – oh, well. She still had some payed days to sort out her stuff, so it didn't really matter what time she went to bed. She snuggled deeper into the couch and turned the next pages to see if she had missed any last photographs. 

She had almost given up on finding anymore glimpse to the past, when a page suddenly showed. One word standing in curled letter. 

_Danny_

Recognizing her granny's handwriting again, Dani turned the page and found a couple of newspaper clippings. 

Studied the brownish pieces of paper. Danny Fenton was on all of them, seemed to be in his early years past the teens. The first one showed him standing next to Masters, but the picture confused Dani. 

She got that they hadn't been on good hand before the wedding pictures, but this was clearly long after the time her grandparents had been married...so why did the two men seem so unhappy again? 

At least Danny Fenton did. Master's features showed nothing but smiles and confidence, but the Fenton teen beside him looked sad. Why? 

Dani flipped the clips telling about parties and company success on Masters’ behalf. A clipping saying something about Danny getting announced as his legal heir. Guess he was a Danny Masters then. 

The clippings suddenly changed and it took Dani a second to understand why. The ones with both Masters and Fenton had been English newspapers. 

The ones with the grown Danny alone was from New York Times. And they had clearly misspelled his last name. Fonten? 

Dani’s irritation only grew as several newspapers insisted on fucking up his name, but then she actually began to read what it was about and rose an eyebrow. 

"’New York medium and his ghost saves the day’?" she asked confused and then noticed the notes around the margins of the clippings. 

Granny’s handwriting. 

Dani started reading the first line and decided she would need a beer for this. 

A trip to the little chubby fridge and a bowl of ice-cream later, Dani was reseated and re-snuggled into the couch and began reading the strange tale that was her granny’s great dark conspiracy of her little brother’s endeavors. 

Her brows only rose the more she read and soon she looked ahead with wide eyes and disbelieve. 

“No way…” Dani whispered, “but that means…?” 

A sudden sound made Dani smack her empty bowl onto the carpet. The soft material absorbing the sound and made her little spasm go unnoticed by any possible intruder. 

Dani sighed, told herself that it was stupid to jump to conclusions like that, but then the sound returned – just louder. Dani slowly looked up. 

It was coming from upstairs.

   
 

Danny closed the bedroom door behind him. 

He knew it was highly inappropriate to phase into Jazz’s house uninvited, but he had gone impatient and a bit worried. He had hoped she at least would get out to yell at him if she really hated him and not just put him in time out – very unlike the Jazz he knew. 

Maybe the grandniece he-didn’t-know-the-name-of-yet, had made a point not to tell Jazz about him? Danny guessed this was the real reason he had been forced to wait until past midnight to phase in here. 

He sent the bedroom a look over. The other one had clearly his grandniece’s, if the picture frames and mess was any clue. 

Danny might have been out of Jazz’s life for more than a little fifty years, but Jazz had always been tidy and kept her stuff in check with a tape measure. That and Danny was pretty sure Jazz wouldn’t be a fan of half-naked singers. 

The names like “The Rolling Stones”, “Michael Jackson” and “Bowie” didn’t make a lot of sense to him, but he honestly couldn’t imagine Jazz listened to any of it. They looked provocative. 

This room on the other hand, clearly had to be hers, but Danny felt a lump in his throat by the whole situation. The shelves and closed had been stripped of all ownings. The bed naked and mattress turned sideways. 

The only thing testifying that Jazz had ever called this room her own, was an old worn teddy sitting on the end top of the metal headboard. 

The old memories overwhelming him as he hovered closer and picked it up gently. Held it with the bittersweet fear of breaking it, ruin it…ruin what was left. 

Bearbert Einstein looked so small in his gloved-clad hands. Fragile and patched up more than once during these past years. The black eyes looking up at him, as if asking him…why? 

_Mom is sick, come home._

Jazz is dying, come home. 

The sound of a charging gun killed the silence and Danny didn’t have to turn around to know who had drawn a weapon on him. 

He turned around anyway, send his grandniece and her ecto-gun an empty look. His green eyes returned to the teddy and he caressed the little face. 

“She’s dead. Isn’t she?” 

The woman just narrowed her eyes and held the gun firmly to his face, her voice lacking any signs of weakness or hesitation. Only hostility and venom. 

“You’re some kinda ghost.” 

“And you’re some kinda ghost hunter,” Danny replied just as simple, but less spiteful, “looks like the Fenton tradition lives on.” 

"What are you?" she asked sternly, clearly not fucking around. 

Danny wondered if she had come in close contact with ghosts before. The efficiency gun and her stone face taking into account, it could seem like it. 

He put down the teddy and turned to her with slow movement to let her know he wasn't going to attack and held his voice calm, "I'm Danny Fenton. As I told you, I'm your grandma’s brother." 

"You're Danny Phantom," she corrected, and Danny made a confused face, before he realized the obvious. 

She had found the scrapbook. She had read Jazz's notes. 

"Yeah. Well kinda both –" 

"My ghost detector by the door didn't pick up your signature, NO ghost should be able to get into this house," she interrupted with a scowl and Danny held up his hands as she took a step closer, "so I'll ask you one more time. What. Are. You?" 

Danny was pulled in two directions. One side of him went into auto-mode and laced his tongue with the lies that had become a second nature to him. Lies that had kept him safe for years and gotten him out of dangerous situations, mostly human situations that is. 

The other side of him was the same one that had taken a chance on this woman before. The side of him that was tired of hiding from the world. From himself and the ones he loved. 

"I'm a Halfa. A half-ghost," he said quietly, tried to read her features to clarify if she believed him or not, "but you already know. You've read her notes. Jazz knew, she figured it out all by herself. She was always the clever one of us." 

A shadow of sorrow crept into the woman's face and she clenched her teeth with a strained voice, "get out of my house." 

Danny just nodded and phased out of the wall.


	38. How the times are changing for all of us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> Danny found that he had come to late for Jazz  
>  _The only thing testifying that Jazz had ever called this room her own, was an old worn teddy sitting on the end top of the metal headboard. Bearbert Einstein looked so small in his gloved-clad hands. Fragile and patched up more than once during these past years. The black eyes looking up at him, as if asking him…why?_  
>  _“She’s dead. Isn’t she?”_  
>  _The woman just narrowed her eyes and held the gun firmly to his face, “you’re some kinda ghost.”_  
>  _“And you’re some kinda ghost hunter,” Danny replied, “looks like the Fenton tradition lives on.”_  
>  _"My ghost detector by the door didn't pick up your signature, NO ghost should be able to get into this house," she interrupted with a scowl and Danny held up his hands as she took a step closer, "so I'll ask you one more time. What. Are. You?"_  
>  _"I'm a Halfa. A half-ghost," he said quietly, "but you already know. You've read her notes. Jazz knew, she figured it out all by herself. She was always the clever one of us."_  
>  _A shadow of sorrow crept into the woman's face and she clenched her teeth with a strained voice, "get out of my house."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But before this, Skulker received a advice.  
>  _Skulker rose an eyebrow in question and Danny sighed, “you do realize that Vlad would find his pages faster if I wasn’t around, right? Even you have to admit he loses focus when we stumble into one another. If I were you, I would just get the page and keep to myself that you ever saw me. But that’s just me I guess…”_
> 
> And in the now, Danny and Nichols had some food for thought  
>  _“Guess they didn’t serve burgers in prison, huh?” Nichols joked and began on his lukewarm burger with somewhat table manners, while Danny just wolfed his down without a care._  
>  _“Burgers? Nah, I don’t even think burgers was invented at that time – if they were I never saw one. I got my first case of real American junk food the 13. April of 1985. It was a Nasty Burger meal of all things. But the bun had a hole in the middle like a doughnut back then. They changed it to a solid bun some years later. The 80’s was weird, man. They even had a period of purple ketchup.”_  
>  _“Sounds like a lawless wasteland,” Nichols chuckled, recalling some old memories of his own years as a child in that time._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey you wonderful people :) Happy Christmas!!!!!!!  
> As you can see I have posted two chapters this time and that's not a mistake - it's a christmas present for me to you :D  
> The snow continues at my place - which is CRAZY, I haven't seen snow in December since i was a child!  
> Anyway, I guess it¨s time for everyone's favorite villain to return, don't ya think? V- man is back!  
> In this chapter the radio will play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwoiy-Fwm0E  
> And later, Dani will sing along to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9dvwVMsGn8  
> Hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 1985, Walker's prison, the Ghost Zone_

Walker groaned as he for the second time in his existence was thrown before the feet of Vlad Plasmius. 

The only thing segregating this from the previous time, was the fact that both were now ghosts – or part ghost – and instead of an organization made of humans to distinct ghosts, Walker's prison had been created by ghost for the sake of imprisoning ghosts – and humans occasionally... 

"This will have consequences," Walker growled and spat a bit of ectoplasm from his beat-up lip. 

Vlad tilted his head slightly as he looked the ghost over, humored himself in silence by the irony. 

Skulker – now out of the striped uniform and back in his biker attire – gave the warden a firm kick in the back with a metallic grin, "shut your mouth and wait till he tells you to speak, punk." 

Vlad watched the warden bent over in pain and made a simple hand gesture to inform his employee that it was enough. 

Behind them, the Fright Knight was still rounding up the last of the warden’s goons and the few prisoners, who had utilized Vlad's attack on the prison and taken the chance to escape, had been re-captured and chained to a pole in the middle of the courtyard along with their former imprisoners. 

Taking over the prison had been a little too easy in Vlad's opinion and the hundred and twenty-seven-year old Halfa had been a bit taking off guard by the prison's condition. 

Walker's prison had been a hot topic in the most of zone and many a ghost had talked of impossible escape, cruel imprisonment, and their fear of the merciless Walker. 

Sending Skulker to fetch the page had been a risky mission, but Vlad had trusted that the hunter would be able to get to the page before the end of the week, when Vlad would return from his own search to bail him out. 

When he had arrived a few hours before, he had been mental prepared for an actual fight and possible besiege, but instead, he had been met with an open door and prison in chaos. 

Inmates had been littering the area on free foot and most of the prison staff had either been mauled or in panic. 

Were-ghosts had been all over the place and most of them crawling the watchtower, where Walker and his last organized goons had been evacuated and tried to wait out the chaos. 

Skulker had awaited him at the gates to the prison and handed him the page as promised, but what had really interested the Halfa, had been the story behind it. 

Vlad folded his hands behind his back with a stern expression, "there's no need for this to get any bloodier, Walker. All I want from you is simple information. Where is Danny Phantom now?" 

Walker scowled, "why should I tell you anything? You have ruined my prison and brought disorder to my part of the zone! Look at it! It will take months to get all those criminals back under lock and key!" 

Skulker wacked the ghost in the back of the head for raising his voice and tried to keep a straight face. Unlike Walker, Skulker knew the position of the whelp and could easily save his boss some time by simply telling him. 

But despite that, the hunter kept silent. 

He was still loyal to Plasmius, no doubt when the gates to the Elswhereness was at the risk. He could probably try hunting the pages himself, but the halfa's connections to the human world had proven to be the key to find most of the pages during the years. 

And even if Skulker wanted to just take the pages for himself, he wouldn't get far. He needed Plasmius to decipher the pages for him and he’ll be damned if he defied this half-ghost. 

He had seen what happened to those who did and if there was one thing Skulker knew by core, it was that those who pissed of Vlad Plasmius, was the ones that now inhabited the Unworld. 

But despite the risk of ending there himself by keeping quiet, Skulker had decided to keep the whelp's current position to himself. 

The whelp was right. Plasmius had a bad habit of losing focus when the other Halfa popped into his attention and Skulker couldn't allow that when they were this close to find the last five pages. 

No distractions were allowed. 

Skulker's metallic features cracked into that of a sadistic smirk, when Plasmius grabbed Walker's face and send volt through his body, making the warden scream in pain and collapsing. 

Plasmius kicked the warden back onto his back and placed a firm boot on his chest, right above the core. 

"I'll ask you again, Walker. Where is he?" 

"I don't know," Walker groaned and clenched his teeth by the added pressure, "he escaped with Wulf, tore a portal into the human world. That punk used his human powers to phase through my walls, broke all rules and released my prisoners! He even broke my leg for fun!" 

Vlad hid it well, but a bit of old unease crept into his mind. 

Daniel had always been a fighter, but at the same time gentle soul. Their last meeting in the ruins of Paris had showed Vlad a darker side of his beloved soulmate and the dead ringmaster’s words still rang clearly in his quiet mind. 

The crystal ball might have turned Daniel evil, but the darkness in Daniel had been Vlad’s work and he had believed his little badger lost to it all for a few seconds, before the spell had been broken. 

The few seconds before Daniel's escape had assured Vlad that his compassionate Daniel had returned to the surface and Skulker story seemed to tell the same – but the little detail with Walker's leg didn't seem right to the Halfa. 

Daniel wasn't one to simply break other’s bones like that. But time could change people and it was a long time since he had seen the younger Halfa. 

Taking down a place like this alone surely proved Danny Phantom's reputation as a powerful entity to be true. He had made himself quit a name among ghosts and become the epitome of divinity. 

Vlad had to find him. 

"Forget it, Plasmius," Skulker said and broad the Halfa out of his thoughts, "no one knows where the whelp is other than that were-ghost and even if we find him, he's not going to be of any use. He doesn’t speak any known language." 

Vlad lifted his boot from the gasping specter and ran a hand through his hair. 

During the current years and his trip into the part of the zone inhabited by dragon-like ghosts, two actual horns had begun to grow out of his temples, where his hair normally would be styled as such. 

At first, it had surprised Vlad to find that his own ghost form would alter its appearance like that, but with some study, he had come to understand that fire cores often change into more monstrous trait with time. 

Vlad hadn’t exactly grown scales or leather wings, but the horns and forked tongue had added to the more dragon-like appearance of his. He often wondered what Daniel's ice core would add to his, but that was for him to discover when he found the ice-halfa. 

"Then hunt the were-ghost down," Vlad replied and gestured for the Fright Knight to finish up, "I'll find an interpreter when we have him in our possession. Bring him back alive and unharmed if you can, Skulker. Use all means if necessary and bring Bullet with you." 

Skulker just nodded and headed to the cell of Walker’s right-hand, leaving Vlad with the Fright Knight and Walker. 

The warden eyed them both, "if you're going to end me, you might as well do it now." 

"On the contrary, I'll rather keep you alive," Vlad informed him with a smirk, "this prison have kept this part of the zone in check on a rather pleasing level and I'll like it to remain that way. All these ghosts on the loose is causing a lot of territorial commotion and even more problems if they escape to the human world. Problems I don't need or see any benefit from." 

Walker narrowed his eyes, "you want me to continue my work?" 

"Yes, and I want you to _work_ for _me_ ," Vlad replied with a businesslike demeanor and had the Fright Knight releasing all Walker’s goons, "get your prison under control by the end of this week and start hunting down the troublemakers. Wulf is your sole target and I'll want a full report of his habits and that collar back on his neck. You will report directly to me about the process and stay loyal to me as the new master of this territory. Do you understand?" 

Walker clearly didn't like it, but as a weaker ghost under another ghost’s territory, he knew better than to fight and submitted to the Halfa. 

Vlad smirked in satisfaction and walked to the watchtower and its office, as he pulled out the page from his cape. 

The information of Pandora’s Box didn't interest him much, but from the years of deciphering Sojourn’s pages, his trained eyes could already spot the little keys hiding in the letters and symbols. 

Four pages left.

   
 

 _Year 1985, Miss. Dani Thornwood's house, Amity park, Minnesota, USA_

It was early morning when Dani woke from her troubled sleep. 

After last night's occurrences, she was surprised to even have slept at all. The details still running through her head, as she laid silently in her bed with her ecto-gun next to her. 

She had a granduncle…a ghost granduncle. 

No, she corrector herself stubbornly, a ghost couldn't be related to anyone. Ghosts were undead creatures, viscous and evil, only shadows of past existence and always out to haunt the living. 

But he’s also half human, meaning half of him was still her family by blood… 

Dani thought back on all the ghosts she had met during the years. Amity Park had always been a haunted place and seemed more troubled by ghosts than most cites. 

The population had learned to fight them off with the years of experience and a corporation on the outskirts of town even functioned by producing weapons and security systems to keep people safe from specters. 

Dani had brought her Axion security system upgrade after her granny's went outdated and it had been the best in test, although it hadn't detected this half-ghost. 

She would have to tell Valerie about this, make her take half-ghost into thought when she tested for the new series of anti-ghost products. 

As the CEO of Axion Labs, she was the most knowledgeable person in all Amity when it came to ghosts, but Dani had never heard her mention something like a half-ghost or Halfa before. 

If it wasn't for granny's notes, Dani would have believed the Halfa to be a dirty liar. 

She recalled the misery that seemed to have hung around him last night. The way he had held granny's teddy like it was the most precious in the world. Spoken of her with both tenderness and affection. 

Proud that she had known of his secret. 

_She was always the clever one of us._

A bit of guilt made her regret last night's end, but she shook it off and stood out of bed to return to work. It had already been a week and she had to finish sorting granny's things before the teaching at the high school called her back and took up all her time again. 

The craving for coffee lead her to the little kitchen and Dani poured a generous cup of beans into the machine and checked the window to see if the paperboy had made his rounds yet. 

The kid popped into view almost as summoned and threw her newspaper in a large arch, as he raced past her property on his bike. Dani left the machine to its buzzing and walked out to the door. 

A crisp sound made her stop in surprise and she lifted her slipper to find an old photograph. She picked it up slowly and unwrinkled it to the best of her ability. 

It was the picture the half-ghost had forced into her hand right before she’d slammed the door in his face last night. Told her to show it to her granny and prove he was who he claimed to be. 

The old image of her great-grandmother looked back at her with her young granny Jazz right beside her. The little boy with the blurred hand sending her an open gaze. 

It was the same photograph as the one in granny's scrapbook, meaning there had been at least two copies of the same picture. Dani turned it around to find a girly handwriting in italic on the blank side. 

_Behave properly, Danny. Write when you can._

_\- Jazz._

The guilt returned. Had she been wrong to send him away? 

The unease in her guts told her that she had. Strangely enough it was the same kind of feeling she had experienced back when she used to be around her parents. 

Same feeling that had made her cry as a child when her mother had talked bad about her father the entire ride over his house and as soon as Dani had entered his house and the door had been closed, he in return would fill her ears with how much he despised her mother. 

Those weekends had always been the worst and just to make it more fucked up, she would always come to believe it was her fault. 

Her fault that they had to hate each other, since she was the only thing still keeping them somewhat together since they couldn’t figure out how should have child custody in the end. 

She looked from the old picture to the big painting of her granny at the end of the hall. Recalled her voice from the first time Dani had entered the door with her luggage and heartache. 

_“You know you can stay for as long as you like,” her granny said and closed the door behind her. Dani just nodded and ignored the smell of old people. Her granny watched her with a concerned expression, but suddenly returned to her cheery demeanor, “oh don’t look so glum, it could be worse – I could have cats and force you to eat old cookies.”_

_Dani snorted without wanting to and her granny smiled to her, before turning serious again, “Dani, hon, I know this must be hard for you and you might feel like you have betrayed your parents for coming here – but it’s your life and you should express the right to live it as you wish without feeling guilt. Your parents have their own problems to struggle with, you as a growing teen and soon adult, should only have to struggle with your own. It’s not your job to be their peacemaker. No child is.”_

_“I know,” Dani replied quietly and had to dry her eyes. Her granny always had the talent to put difficult things into words. Maybe running to her hadn’t been betrayal after all. “Come,” granny said and lead her up the stairs, “the guest room is this way and if you like, I can make some coffee and we can watch one of those violent-supernatural movies for teen audience you like so much.”_

Dani smiled for the first time in a long while, “okay.” 

The girl on the photo only seemed to become sweeter the more Dani looked at it and she closed her eyes. Granny had taken her in without hesitation and Dani had repaid her kindness by sending her brother away without giving him a chance to explain himself. 

What granddaughter she was. 

Dani sighed and mumbled under her breath, "this is so lame." 

But in the end, she had to admit the only lame thing about this whole situation was really her. She placed the photo aside, decided not to dwell on it anymore, what's done is done and all that, and he was surely long gone by now. 

Ghosts could travel incredible far it they didn’t have a territory to haunt and since he was only half-ghost and she had just kicked him out, there really was no reason for him to stick around. 

He had probably left for good. 

That believe was put to shame, when she opened the door to find her granduncle sitting on her doorstep with the newspaper in his lap and smoking a cigarette. 

He turned his head and she send him an unreadable look, "you're still here?" 

He just shrugged and stubbed the cigarette on his own boot, "obviously." 

The awkwardness crept back in and both of them tried to weight the situation in silence. Dani knew she had wanted a second chance to do right, but now that it practically had landed on her doorstep, she didn’t really know how to proceed. 

She ended up being the one who broke the silence with a sign, "…and you've been out here all night?" 

The half-ghost made a guilty expression, "well I don't really have anywhere else to go." 

Dani clicked her tongue. _Whoa, was that sad or what?_ and decided she didn't want to feel guilty anymore. 

Besides, her granny would probably turn in her coffin if she knew Dani had chased her little brother of her doorstep for the second time without as much as to offer him a hot beverage. 

"C'me on in, I'm making coffee." 

Danny looked after her as she returned to the kitchen and rose unsure from the cold step. The sound of a machine buzzing in the kitchen made him curious and he closed the front door behind him. 

He made a stop to pick up his old photograph from the little table in the hallway and lifted his eyes to be meet by the portrait of his sister on the end of the hallway. 

He nodded to himself, he had been right – adult Jazz had looked exactly like their mother. He continued into the small kitchen with the newspaper in hand. 

The buzzing seemed to come from a machine designed to make coffee and Danny watched it with open interest, as his grandniece made sunny side eggs and bacon on a pan on the stove. 

None of them spoke and Dani sighed in slight annoyance as he just continued to stare at her. She pointed to one of the cabinets without a word and he opened it to find some neatly stacked plates and cups. 

Danny guessed she wanted him to make the table and decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth. He fished out two pairs and began to set the small table by the end wall, the smell of breakfast filling the room as a compensation for words. 

Dani turned off the stove and divided the food unto the plates, while Danny poured the coffee. 

They both seated at the same time, looked at everything but the other and began to eat. Danny couldn’t remember when he'd last eaten breakfast like this and had to retrain himself from not just wolfing it down. 

The eggs in the Far Frozen had been rare to find and when the yetis actually brought any home, they had preferred to eat them raw and Danny had learned to do the same. 

Dani watched him in secret as she worked through her own plate and both of them cringed when they took a sip of their coffee at the same time. 

"Cream and sugar?" Danny asked and Dani nodded with a matching expression and fetched their needed ingredients for tolerable coffee consumption. 

Both added a generous amount to each cup and none of them voice the fact that their actions were almost simultaneously. 

Danny cleared his throat, "thanks for inviting me in." 

She just shrugged, "don't think I won't throw you out again if you try anything funny." 

Danny just nodded and was ready to return to the silence, when she suddenly broke it again with a scrutinizing look, "you might be my granny's brother, but that doesn’t mean I trust you any more than any other hobo. You're not some psycho killing people in their sleep, right?" 

"Nah," Danny replied casual, "I prefer my victims awake so I’ll be the last they ever see." 

Dani snorted, clearly taking it for a joke and Danny snickered a bit forced to hide his own uneasy. Where the hell had that come from? 

_Where do you think?_ Dan replied amused and Danny ignored him. 

With the ice somewhat broken between them, he rotated his coffee around a bit and decided it was time for the hard questions. 

"When did she past?" 

Dani sobered up and looked down at her own cup with a low voice, "last week. She got a bad case of cold last winter and never really recovered from it. She didn't suffer if that's what you're afraid of." 

Danny just nodded, "you took care of her?" 

"Yeah, I moved in a couple of years ago when my parents got divorced. I lived her while taking my last exams and returned after college to get a job at the high school. It was less expensive for me to just live here and it was nice to keep a house with her. It felt stable, less..." 

Dani rubbed her face tiredly, not sure why she was telling him all this, but had to admit it felt natural. 

She changed her voice to that of a sterner one, as she decided it was her turn to get some answers, "she rarely talked about you, you weren’t even mentioned in the will. She just left everything to me. I don't really know anything about you. Where have you been?" 

Danny guessed he deserved that jab, "in the Ghost Zone. It’s the –" 

"The separate plane and world of ghost, I know," she interrupted well informed, "what I mean is, where have you _been?_ " 

Danny frowned, could ask himself the exact same question, "I've been hiding." 

"Why?" she asked and took an awaiting sip of her coffee. 

Danny swallowed. It always surprised him just how brutal people could be when they wanted answers. He had used most of the night and morning to ask himself the exact same question without coming to anything useful and now she just wanted him to give her one? 

He shook his head, didn’t know where to start. 

"I…I wanted to protect her," Danny admitted slowly, before suddenly having his own tongue running wild, "keeping her safe from all the dangers and ghostliness that follows me. Make sure that she wouldn't get hurt because of me. She almost died because of my stupidity once and in the fight, I ended up screwing up everything and ran. When they declared I had died, I thought it was best the same. Better for her to believe that I was dead. That way she would finally be safe from me and all the shit I trail." 

Danny exhaled raggedly and tried to compose himself, keep it together, "I've been on the run for so long. I never took a second to consider what that might do to her...to anyone. I promised myself never to hurt her after I missed my mother’s funeral, but..." 

Danny felt the tears trailing down his face and dried them up resentful. Why was he suddenly being so weak? And this need to confess…where had it come from? 

He dried of the tears again, lost in his own emotional flood, "now I've just repeated history. It's like I don't learn anything no matter how many years that passes. I'm sorry, I should leave." 

Danny suddenly rose to walk out, couldn’t stand being such a failure in Jazz’s house and know he could never get her forgiveness. He had barely left the table, before he then felt a pair of hands grab his arm. 

The woman scowled up at him, actual annoyance showing on her face, mixed with something…else. 

She scowled at him like a mother at her child, "dude, you can't just unload all that crap on me and then decide to leave like that. Get your ass seated and stop being such a whiney bitch." 

Danny blinked surprised by the scolding and sat back down like a good boy. He hadn’t heard a woman talk like that since Sam Manson. Scary. 

Dani huffed and poured him a second cup of coffee, "now I’m going to tell you something and you're going to listen closely, okay? You clearly screwed up and everything sucks, but what's done is done and there's no taksies backsies. You seem like an okay guy if you look past the whole Halfa part and the weird beard –" 

"Hey!" 

" – but running from problems is a shitty thing to do and if you really want to do something productive, you can go up to the bathroom on your right and take the one of the onetime razors behind the sink mirror. If you eat food, I guess you're human, so take a bath to and get yourself fixed up before we leave." 

Danny shook his head, still feeling like shit, "where to?" 

"The commentary, where else, you airhead!” she said with rolled eyes, like he was dense and pulled him up from the chair, “now get your ass up there and get out of that stinking caveman costume. Seriously, you smell like a wet dog. I'll bring some of my ex's close up to you, I think I still have some of the shit he left behind." 

Danny blinked. Jazz’s grave? He looked down himself and guessed the least he could do was looking presentable before Jazz's grave and took the woman's direction to the bathroom. 

It was a small room with laundry hanging from the ceiling, but clean enough and Danny looked around as she closed the door for him and left. Danny took one look at the shower head and decided he might as well give it a shot. 

He stepped into the shower cabin with some caution and tried turning some stuff. He remembered vaguely how to use one of these from his blurred time during the Circus and turned on the water after some experimenting. 

The amount of soaps and shower equipment puzzled him a bit, but you could never go wrong with a bar of clear soap and he sighed as he began cleaning himself. 

The warm water did him good and he watched as the dirt vanished down the drain. He transformed into Phantom and repeated the procedure with closed eyes and a blissful expression. 

When he finally stepped out of the shower, he felt cleaner than he had in many years and tried his body with a towel. 

The next step was to get his facial hair under control and Danny took on last look at himself in the fuggy mirror before closing the scissor and cut of his long beard by the roots. 

When there were only short tufts left on his jaw in both forms, he picked up what he believed was a razor and picked at the strange translucent crisp wrapping it was sealed in. 

Having no idea what kind of material he was dealing with, but he could ask his grandniece when she returned with the cloths. 

Danny decided on a clean shave and watched as an old face slowly returned to the surface. 

He was ready to decide on what to do with the long tresses, when a soft knocking sounded from the door and he secured the towel closer around his hips and opened. 

She opened her mouth to hand him the cloths in her arms, but then froze with open mouth. 

Danny scratched his smooth chin in confusion, "what?" 

She just shook her head slowly with eyes of amazement, "uhhh, it's just...wow. I would never have guessed – how old did you say you were again?" 

"I never did. But I guess stopped aging around my late twenties." 

"I can tell," she just retorted quietly and tried to keep her eyes above his toned chest, "so uhmm, I got you a pair of jeans, socks and shoes and a jacket, but I don't have a shirt –" 

"Wow about this one?" Danny asked and held up the white T-shirt with the red dot he had brought at the newspaper stand. 

"That could work," she replied and handed him the cloths, still looking anywhere else than his firm chest and six-pack, "but let the cap stay here, you look like a tourist with it. And this isn’t even New York." 

"But I love New York," he added and held out the jeans in interest. 

The style and material foreigner to him – wasn’t it something workmen and cowboys wore? "was it jeans you called them?" 

"Yeah," she said slowly, her focus now locked on his locks. 

She stuffed a hand into her pocket and handed him a rubber band. 

"For what?" Danny asked interested and pulled it curiously, to see how far this material could be stretched without breaking. 

"Your hair, just tie it up with it." 

Danny ran a hand through the waist long hair, "you don't think I should cut it short?" 

"NO!" she all but yelled and then hurried to control herself, "no, its fine as it is. Don't cut it, okay?" 

A couple of minutes later, Danny was dressed and stepped out of the bathroom to hear his grandnieces final judgment. She tried her best to stay serious, but ended up making him twill with a girly grin and adjusted his leatherjacket. 

"There, now you look like you belong – if anyone askes, you’re my cousin, okay? No one is going to believe you’re my granduncle or just uncle." 

"Guess I can live with that," Danny retorted and tried getting use to his own reflection. 

The pants were a bit too tight and the shoes a size to big, but it could work for now. The t-shit suited him just fine and he ran a hand over his now smooth jaw. Without the beard and with the long hair tied up, he looked strangely young. 

Like from back when he had been a medium in New York. Juts more toned and less angry. And longer hair, of course. 

He wondered briefly what Tucker and sam would have said, had they see him now and then felt old heart each fill his chest. 

Dani didn’t notice the change of expression, as she left him to his own reflection and discarded his old cloths. She returned and collected the little beads from his beard, and he stuffed them inside his old wallet to rest aside all his small belongings. 

Danny watched as his cut of hair was thrown out and disappeared to the same place as his old yeti cloths. Lost to oblivion just as all the other attires of time he had once worn. 

Only he remained. 

Dani didn’t waste daylight, as she led him to the front door and out to what turned out to be a car, but not a car Danny had ever seen before. Danny watched around curiously as he seated beside her at the front seat. 

He was ready to go, when she gave him a look. 

“Seatbelt.” 

“Seat what?” 

She sighed and pointed to a strange looking set of restrains hanging beside him. Danny pulled it attentively and she showed him how to close it. 

He couldn’t see what they do good for, but she insisted on it, so he guessed he could put it on for her sake. The design of the entire car confused him though. It was closed up and not open as he was used to. 

The jacket was already getting to warm for him and he wondered if modern humans ever got frustrated of having to take of their cloths and on again every time they got in or out of the car. 

She started the car after securing he really had clicked the seatbelt before steering the car out on the street. 

Danny was fascinated. A woman who could drive a car. Sam would have been so proud. 

"By the way," he suddenly said and turned to her, "what's your name?" 

She put one a pair of large sunglasses and send him a grin, "Danielle, but call me Dani." 

Danny couldn't help but smile a bit, "let me guess, Jazz –" 

"Granny had the last saying on my name, yeah," she replied and turned on the radio. Rock streamed out of the speakers and Danny jumped in his seat.

 

_“I'm a space cowboy_  
_Bet you weren't ready for that_  
_I'm a space cowboy_  
_I'm sure you know where it's at_  
_Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah”_

 

"What’s that?" He asked scandalous and tried turning the volume up and down. 

"Steve Miller, you act as if this is your first time on earth of something." 

Danny frowned and started nodding his head to the music unconsciously, "last time I visited the living world it was still Hitler’s third Reich. What does he mean by ‘space cowboy?’ you can’t ride a horse in space? You’ll die from the cold. The horse would freeze solid." 

Dani sent him an outrageous look, but then seemed to calm down and sighed, "oh, boy. Am I gonna blow your mind or what? Okay, back in 1969 there was this guy call Niel Armstrong, okay?" 

The next twenty minutes to the commentary and a local florist turned out to be some of the most mind-blowing in the Halfa existence and Danny was still in shock when they finally parked outside the cemetery. 

"I wanna be an aeronaut”, he whispered with awe and Dani shrugged. 

"I doubt you can pass the blood sample exam, with your ectoplasmic particles – but hey dream big, right? They don't take women in either, I've tried." 

"But I thought women and men were equal now?" Danny noted with a frown and Dani shook her head. 

"I've guess it’s become better since your time, but no. It's still a men's world. C'me one now, cuz." 

Danny climbed out of the car with the bouquet of red roses with a frown, and allowed her to lead him through the little enclosures of tombstones. 

It was a quiet place and not that big. Danny looked around as Dani lead the way and he had to admit he had imagined Jazz’s final rest to be a lot more extravagant. Not a mausoleum in sight. 

They reached the right place and Dani placed her own flowers beside the grave. 

Danny swallowed as he read the tombstones.

 

 _Dean Travis Thornwood_

_19-06-1891 - 22-07-1960_

_May his gentle soul rest with the lord_

 

 _Jasmine Ally Thornwood_

_01-08-1898 - 03-04-1985_

_Beloved mother and loving wife_

 

Danny guessed he deserved the cold feeling of deja vu. 

He seemed to repeat things like these as if the universe was playing a nasty joke on him, but just as the time he had returned to late to see his mother of, he had no one else to turn his anger at, than himself. 

The red roses he had bought reminding him of Jazz's hair and he laid them to rest gently on the grass besides Dani’s. Danny took a moment to recall all the things he had wanted to tell his older sister and Dani stepped a bit back to give him space. 

"Hey, Jazz," he said uncertain, "you to, Dean. We never really talked that much, but you were always good to my sister and that makes some points in my book." 

Dani bite her lip beside him. Hadn’t really expected him to talk to the grave, but listened silently to his little speech without interrupting. 

"I'm sorry I didn't get her sooner, Jazz. I'm an idiot, but you knew that...knew a lot of things. You always were smarter than I gave you credit for." 

A little lump formed in his throat and he had to clear it, "I've just discovered I have a grandniece, I can see why you gave her my name, she's pretty much my clone." 

Dani sent him a nasty look and Danny failed to keep a straight face and grinned, "although I'm not entirely sure where she gets her dirty mouth from." 

This time Dani gave him an elbow in the ribs and Danny decided he had had his fun, "okay, she's a nice lady and I’m just a blind fool." 

"Better," Dani commented quietly. 

Danny smiled and turned back to the gravestone, "I'm sure you’re with mom and dad right now. Somewhere up there between the stars or in some heaven none of us believed in... but I guess that if there’s a paradise for ghosts, then there's one for humans to. I know I can never join you, immortal and all that –" 

Dani send him a surprised glance, but Danny ignored it. 

" – but don't feel sorry for me, I don't. I know I can't make this up to you, but...I’ll try, somehow." 

Danny kneeled down and fished one of the beads out of his wallet. It was a clear ice gem made from his own ice-powers. None melting and with the color of clear aqua, the color of her eyes. 

Dani watched as he buried it in the ground before the tombstone and rose again to brush of his hand in the jeans. 

She sent the tombstone on least glance before leading Danny back to the car and he followed without a word. 

Thoughts lost in the past and regrets. 

She turned down the volume of her mixtape as they drove of and Danny stared out the window while the modern world rushed by. None of them spoke and Dani sent her granduncle a glance out of the corner of her eye. 

Still had a hard time believing this was really an old man. But he had the eyes of one though… 

Dani saw the mall coming up on her left and suddenly got an idea. Danny woke up from his state of misery when the car suddenly took a sharp turn. 

"Hey!" 

"Get out loser, we're going shopping," Dani informed and jumped out of the car. 

Danny scowled by the rude addressing of his person, but followed her out nonetheless. 

"What's this?" he asked, giving the giant building a confused look. 

"The place where all your consumer dreams come true," Dani grinned and grabbed his arm. 

Danny followed but put the brakes in with wide eyes, when they got to the revolving door. But there was no stopping the Dani-train and she forced him through with a grin. 

Danny's second halt was at the escalators and Dani laughed at him, as he grabbed the moving railing like his life depended on it. 

Danny soon fell back into the daze of a tourist and looked around in amazement, while Dani lead him around by the arm, knowing where she wanted to go and pulled him into a dressing shop for men. 

"Alright, let get you a wardrobe," she mused and started taking cloths down the racks. 

"Funny, I didn’t take you as a person to care about fashion," Danny noted drily and she shrugged. 

"I'm not, but it’s not every day I get to dress a guy from the past four centuries, this is going to be fun!" 

Danny had different opinion, but tried to make an effort for her sake and picked out some cloths. She pushed him grinningly into the changing room and took a seat outside. 

Danny decided on a set of cloths and walked out to get her approval. She was paying after all. 

Dani tilted her head a bit. The red pants and loose polo shirt wasn’t right, and she send him back in. 

He returned in a matching set of patterned sweatshirt and sweatpants, but where Dani gave him thumbs up, Danny cringed his nose at the mixed pattern and decided to try one the things he had gathered. 

“How about this?” he asked and turned around to show her the black slacks and shirt with a loose cardigan he had found. Dani shook her head. 

“Nah, that’s grandpa cloths – but the shirt might work. Try the white jacket and purple tie on.” 

Danny rolled his eyes, but did as he was asked. 

Dani clapped her hands when he returned and adjusted his tie so it wasn’t that tight. Dani turned to the mirror and bite his lip. 

The black shirt, jeans and white open jacked would have been unacceptable clothing back in his time, but it looked strangely right. He touched the loose purple tie in thought, “none of it matches.” 

“It’s not supposed to,” she insisted, “you look great, now you just need to learn how to moonwalk.” 

A short dancing lesson and matching of cloths later, they moved on to the next shop and had soon walked the mall thin. 

"You sure you can afford all this?" Danny asked, the bags of cloths and items apparently needed for modern existing, growing in number. 

Dani just shrugged, "its fine, you can just pay me back later when you get a job." 

Danny send her a surprised look, "a job?" 

"Yeah, how else are you going to make a living here?" 

She continued on to a display of shoes and kept talking, while Danny just followed, mind busy with other things than footwear. 

Get a job, huh? 

Danny considered it. Getting a job meant settling down and possible stay for a long while. It hadn't exactly been part of his original plan, but now that he thought about...what had he been supposed to do after finding Jazz? 

Finding Jazz had been his only goal, but what would have happened after he'd made his case and told her how sorry he was, hadn't exactly been thought out or important at that time. 

Now that Jazz was gone, and he was left with a grandniece in her place – or cousin, as Dani insisted – the entire situation had been turned upside down and left him in the open. 

Danny watched from the purchases to Dani and back again. Something would seem she expected him to come living with her... 

"Uhm, Dani?" 

"Yeah?" she hummed and debated between two pair of boots. 

"Maybe I'm just guessing, but is this your way of saying you want me to come live with you?" 

She snorted, "what? You were going to come see my granny and then just leave again?" 

"I... I don't know," Danny admitted and had he had his hand free, he would have rubbed his neck in discomfort. 

"Well, you were the one that said you didn't have anywhere else to go," she pointed out and Danny looked up with a troubled face. 

"I guess, but –" 

"And you wanted to make it up to your sister, right? Well, I was going to look for a roommate to pay half the rent, now that Granny's gone, but if you stayed I wouldn't have to worry about that anymore or risk letting a psycho into my house. You can make granny smile in heaven by helping her granddaughter out." 

"When you say it like that –" 

"I do and when I start working again at the end of the week, you can take care of the house until you find yourself a decent job – sounds cool?" 

It was a little rushed, but Danny guessed this was a profitable situation for both of them. 

"Sounds,” he tasted the new word for a second, “uhm ‘cool’." 

Dani smiled, and they continued walking around the store. Danny had a faint memory of his shoesize and tried on a couple, but none of them appealed to him. The amount of rubber and colors seemed strange in his opinion. 

Male shoes had always been plain black or brown in his world. Only female wore bright colors and that much laces. His distaste was suddenly washed down the drain when he came across a display. 

"You want a pair of All-star converse?" Dani asked surprised and checked the price tag. 

Danny nodded, the red pair of shoes was like nothing he'd ever seen, and as he tried them on, he had to admit the material snugged around his foot almost perfectly. Dani shook her head by the sight of his childish joy over a pair of shoes. 

"They're kinda expensive," she winced, and Danny gave her the puppy eyes. 

"Please? I've just turned 85 today – I haven’t got a birthday present in 58 years!" 

"Ugh, fine, but you're doing all the house chores and move granny's books when we come home, "she bargained, and Danny nodded eagerly, "plus the windows. No one has done them since summer." 

"Done – you won't regret this." 

They left the mall later that day. Dani a bit poorer and Danny more in touch with the time. 

His new red converse tapped the ground with a soft sound and the new jeans and jacket fit him and made him blend in with the rest of the population around them. No more odd stares for him. 

Dani drove them to a new goal and parked outside a low white building with a wide parking lot. 

"C'me one, let’s celebrate you, birthday boy." 

"What's this?" Danny asked and read the sign over the building, "Nasty Burger?" 

"Nasty is one letter away from Tasty,'" she singsonged and led him into the restaurant. 

The smell of fried food and sugar made Danny's stomach growl and they seated in one of the unoccupied stalls. Danny noted that this couldn't be that expensive, since the customers mostly seemed to be young people and school children. 

The prices still didn’t make that much sense to him, but after his shopping with Dani, he had somewhat figured that the money currencies had changed a lot since he last roamed the earth. 

7 dollars would have been the price for a tailored suit back in his time, but now it was the price for the cheapest dish on the menu. 

"What's a burger?" Danny asked and Dani pointed to the neighbor table where to boys eat something looking like a chubby sandwich. 

"It’s a ground meat patty inside a bun with salad, tomatoes, cheese and ketchup. It's junk food, but it’s amazing, I'll go get you a menu order, wait here." 

Dani went to the front desk and Danny looked down at the menu card again. Fries was something he recognized along with cola, the first had been a pretty common thing even back in Britain as a side thing to fried fish. 

It amused him to see that Coca cola still was a thing. He could still remember when it had just arrived in store back in the 1920's and to see it still around after almost sixty years was kinda incredible. 

He wondered if it would still taste the same or they had gone back to increase the cocaine content. 

Was cocaine still a problem in society? Was alcoholism? 

They served beer as a drinking option on the card, the prohibition clearly a thing of the past. 

Poor prohibition agents, they must have felt pretty stupid after the ban lifted. Self-righteous bastards. 

Danny was sooooo gonna buy a beer and bring it to the nearest police station to drink right outside. Really rub it in their faces and spill a little one for good ol' chief Wesley Weston. 

May he rest in peace or get a mean case of hangover if that moron was still around. 

Danny suddenly frowned. 1985...that would make Sam 85 and Tucker 84 around now. A high age, but not impossible to reach. 

They could still be around somewhere, he would have to check one of these days when he figured out this century's people system. 

"Here ya go," Dani said and placed a tray in front of him before taking a seat with her own. 

A cup of what he believed was cola and some fries greeted him along with a wrapped package and he opened it hungry. He noted that Dani didn't get him any utensils and when she just ate with her hands, Danny guessed it was standard and bit into his burger. 

"Oh my god, this is good," he moaned and Dani grinned. 

"You never go wrong with a burger. So, have you thought about a job?" 

"Not really..." 

"What did you use to do before you decided to ditch this world for the undeath’s?" 

Danny slurped some of his cola, no taste of cocaine, "I used to be in a circus, but before that I worked as a ghost hunter in an office of private investigation. But I've done all sorta things." 

Dani listened with interest, "isn't the ghost hunter thing a bit ironic? Being a half-ghost and all?" 

Danny just shrugged, "when I took New York city as my territory the ghosts trespassing in it became my problem, so why not let people pay me to take care of them anyway?" 

"That's actually pretty smart. I saw the clipping about it in granny's book. You were kinda famous." 

"It was a bit of a love-hate thing," Danny replied offhandedly, "sometimes Phantom and Fonten was the savior of the city, other time people thought they were a nuisance and made the police the heroes. But yeah, I got my share in the papers, all fine and dandy." 

Dani winced a bit by the outdated slang, "ugh, you sound like some old grandpa." 

"Hey, respect your elders, kid." 

"This is so bogus," she whispered, still not having her entire head wrapped around the fact he looked so young, but was old as balls, "okay, how about this, I rent some movies and we’ll make a movie night where you promise to try and pick up some modern lingo while watching. Deal?" 

Danny munched on the last of his burger with a confused frown, "you got room for a projector? I didn't see one when I searched the house. Do you own a movie reel with matching sound tape to?" 

Dani just shook her head in amazement, "dude, you're so old." 

They left the Nasty burger to visit the local blockbuster to rent a couple of movies and continued home in heated conversation. 

Dani had tried to explain the concept of VHS-tapes and Danny was more than convinced she was screwing around with him. 

"But how do you get sound and movie roll down into a box that size?" he asked and she groaned. 

"I don't know, it just is, okay? You put it into the VHS-machine and then the stuff shows on the TV screen." 

"But I thought a television was making pictures based on radio waves?" 

"That doesn't even make sense, when the hell did you get that idea!?" 

“You said it was like a radio, just with pictures." 

"I have no fucking clue how a TV works, you dipstick, I just brought one and watch sitcoms, god!" 

"...what's a sitcom?" 

Dani decided question time was over and turned to her driveway. 

Both of them was a little surprised to see a man standing by the garage and Dani mumbled a curse under her breath when it became clear the guy was writing with a spray can on the white garage door. 

She speeded up and hit the brakes in the last second before she hit him. The guy jumped back in shock and then send them an angry look. 

"Motherfucker," Dani sneered and stepped out of the car with angry strides. 

Danny tried getting out his own seatbelt with some difficulties and watched their muffled quarrel. He gave up on the car restrains and simply phased out of them and left the car to stand by Dani's side. 

"Is there a problem here?" he asked and the man looked from him to Dani and his frown deepened. 

"Who the fuck is this sucker? Do you fuck him to?" 

"He's my cousin, Jake," Dani sneered, "don't go and get all jealous again, you moron." 

"Oh yeah," he jeered sarcastic, "’cause being a cousin fucker would be sooo out of your wide preferences, wouldn’t it, you slut?" 

Dani slapped him and Jake raised a fist to return the favor, but Danny had already decided that this was enough and grabbed his arm. 

"You don't hit a woman," he warned and pushed him back. 

Danny had apparently used more strength than he was aware and watched Jake fell hard down on the ground. The guy regained his breath with a fearful expression, but hasted to hide it. 

"Whatever," he growled and stuck his hands in his pockets to talk away. 

Dani watched him until he had left her driveway completely and sighed tiredly. 

"I was handling it." 

Danny frowned a bit by her biting tone. Had he wounded her pride? He guessed it was possible he had overstepped some unknown social boundaries here. Were modern women raised to handled violent situations themselves like men? 

She sure looked like a diminished man right now. 

"Uhmm, sorry? Who was that fella again?" 

She rolled her eyes in annoyance, "just my psycho ex. I broke up with him a month ago, but he's still a total dickhead about it and keeps bugging me." 

Danny gave the garage door a look, "do you want me to do something about him?" 

"No, its fine, just get your stuff inside while I find some turpentine while the paint is still wet." 

Danny guessed it would be easier to just repaint the door, but she probably knew best. The dripping letters confused him a bit though. 

" _'Dyke'_ , is that a curse word or something?" 

Dani had stiffened by the word and scowled angry, "it’s a slur, just forget it and go get your shit fixed." 

Danny wasn't going to argue with that tone and made it one trip with all his new stuff using his super strength. 

The question about where to put it all popped into existence when he had crossed the doorstep and since there was only two bedrooms, and one was already occupied by a living person, the choice was easy, but didn't felt like it. 

He turned the mattress to make it fit in the bedframe and placed all his bags on it before taking a seat. Jazz's room seemed cozy enough with its white walls, soft furniture and large closet of warm chestnut. 

Danny recalled his grandniece saying something about moving Jazz's books and gave the empty shelves a brief glance. The closed turned out to be empty as well and a pale square on the south wall testified to having either hosted a painting or maybe poster. 

Getting his own room seemed like a huge new investment. In the far Frozen, he had shared a cave with four other yeti warriors and Frostbite – and before that, he had been sleeping in a train carriage with the rest of Freakshow's ghosts. 

The little apartment in New York popped into mind and he recalled the little mushy place. The cheap wallpaper and uneven floorboard that would stub your toe if you didn’t watch your footing… 

This house was a lot bigger and better than that and unlike the little apartment, Vlad couldn't sell... 

Danny swallowed. An old restlessness lingering in his mind and heart. 

Vlad. 

He hadn't had time to dwell on the Halfa since he escaped Walker's prison. Skulker had the page, probably already handed it over to his boss and escaped prison himself. 

Danny guessed the prison’s already weakened security wouldn't have been that difficult for someone like Vlad to take down alone. Skulker had said something about them only missing five pages – four if you took this page into account. 

The journal was almost complete and all of its secrets in the hands of Vlad Plasmius. 

Not an uplifting thought. And even less uplifting thought was the fact that Skulker knew where he was. 

If the cyborg hadn’t guessed his position from their short tumbling in the mud before Danny send him back to the Ghost Zone, then he had probably heard Danny yell it to Wulf during the fight in the corridor. 

Vlad would come for him. There was no way around it. 

_And then he will have the life of little Dani to control you with,_ Dan chuckled and Danny shook his head. 

"Shut up, you jerk." 

Dan kept quiet as Danny cradled his chin to think. The good ol’ solution named; 'run and secure your loved ones continuously safety' popped up naturally, but Danny wasn't going to take that way out this time. 

He may have saved Jazz life by staying away, but in the doing he had given her a lifetime of worry in the act as well. He wasn't even going to think about what his disappearance had caused Sam and Tucker. 

Running from them had been out of his hands – Freakshow’s mind control and all that – but he had still left them behind without a word. They might as well be dead. 

He buried his face in his hand and groaned. The guilt and hardship killing him. 

A knock on the door made him look up and Dani popped her head in. 

"I was thinking about making dinner before the movie and – you haven’t unpacked yet?" 

Danny sent the bags on the naked mattress a look, haven almost forgotten all about them, "uhmm, sorry. Got a little lost in thoughts. This being Jazz's old room and all." 

Dani's expression melted into that of understanding and she nodded, "okay, I make dinner and you take your time, okay? There's a lot of her stuff down in the living room if you want any of it. Just take what you want from the boxes, okay?" 

Danny nodded, "sure. I come down in a minute." 

She closed the door and Danny duplicated into two. They looked at each other with a matching expression of tiredness. 

"Let’s just unpack and be done with it." 

"Sure thing." 

They worked in silence as they moved the furniture to their likening and made the bed. Danny placed the cloths in the closed, while his duplicate brought his new toiletries to the bathroom out on the 

hallway and without much thinking, Danny phased down into the living room above his room and almost scared the crap out of Dani. 

"What the fuck, dude! Use the stairs!" 

"Sorry," he smiled sheepish and opened the first box. Dani huffed and returned to the kitchen, after a couple of minutes the sound of a radio soon filling the little house. 

Danny listened silently.https:

 

_“Can't stay at home, can't stay at school._  
_Old folks say 'You poor little fool'._  
_Down the streets I'm the girl next door.”_

 

_“I'm the fox you've been waiting for._  
_Hello, daddy. Hello, mom._  
_I'm your ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!_  
_Hello world! I'm your wild girl._  
_I'm your ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!”_

 

He smiled to himself when she seemed to have forgotten about his existence and began to sing along. 

He looked up as his duplicate phased down to help him sort out his older sister's belongings and they worked in silence to prevent disturbing the peace. 

Most of it turned out to be clothes or books, but Danny found a few trinkets and empty picture frames he could use, and he moved it back to the bedroom. 

The empty picture frames – Dani must have placed the pictures in a photo album or something – was placed on the bedside table along with a lamp, while an old antic radio ended up on the shelf together with some old books Danny recognized from his childhood. 

Dani had already taking his skin cloths away to burn them, but the backpack had been spared and he hung it on the closed after emptying it. 

The cap and newspapers he had brought from the newspaper stand was placed on the room's armchair and the gifts from the Far Frozen was placed on the empty surfaces. 

He pulled out his wallet to place the old photograph of him, his mother and sister in one of the empty frames and did the same with an old picture of him, Sam and Tucker in Greece. 

He smiled sadly as the frames filled his bedside table and tried not to think to much of where they were now, only what they had been. 

He stuffed his old wallet back into his pocket and hung his jacket on the bedframe. Took Jazz's teddy and gave him the place of honor on the shelf right above the bed. 

Danny smiled by his own handiwork and picked up the nuggets of gold he yet had to find a place for. 

"Maybe Dani can use them," he muttered and stuffed them into his pocket before taking the stairs down to the kitchen. 

The smell of food reached him first and he stepped in to find Dani in an apron, rocking her hip to the music on the radio. Danny snickered and she turned to him little embarrassed. 

"Hey, quit scaring me like that, Danny." 

"How _should_ I scare you then?" he grinned and she threw an apron at him. 

"Just cut some cheese and make yourself useful, you owe me for those shoes." 

Danny placed a hand on his chest mockingly, "making an old man work on his birthday? What have the young generation come to?" 

"You want me to blend your macaroni and cheese, grandpa?" she asked sarcastic and pulled out something looking like a pitcher on an engine. 

"Hey, my denture’s still in perfect shape" Danny insisted, "it's my back that's more than I can _chew_." 

Dani groaned by the bad pun and returned to stir the macaroni. Danny decided to let her of easy with his bad humor and helped her adding the butter into the pot. 

The smell of melted butter filled the little kitchen and Dani gestured for him to bring her the cheese. Danny found some in the fridge and took notice of the boxes of takeaway on the shelves. 

Apparently, Dani wasn't that much for cooking and from the content in the cabins to judge, a bit of a junk consumer to. 

Danny decided he would make it a thing to cook for her and help her eat healthier. She was slim and all, but that much sugar and fat couldn't possibly be good for anyone. 

Danny had lived like that back when he'd moved from place to place on his way to New York, but he was a half-ghost with an impossible metabolism system burning food faster than he could eat and out of any negative health condition zone. 

He handed her the cheese and watched as it was mixed into the butter and noodles, while finding the plates to set the table. Dani stopped him. 

"Movie night, remember? I'll just pour it into two bowls and eat it on the couch. Go get me two extra for ice-cream – it’s in the freezer." 

Danny pulled out the round box from the “freezer” (oh my, an ice cabinet!) and began scooping it into two bows, while she served their food and he frowned a bit, "this is just occasional, right? Please tell me you don't eat like this daily." 

"You're such a grandpa," she mumbled and handed him his dinner with a fork on top, "don't go all parental on me, okay? You won't like me when I’m being parental on." 

Danny took his food and followed her into the messy living room where boxes and loose stuff still littered around. 

"Something tells me there's a reason you lived with Jazz," he noted and she picked one of the VHS-tapes they had rented and read the little words on the side. 

"My parents are divorced with a big 'D'," she just replied monotoned, "they got more problems than solutions and granny offered me her home, so I took it. They can row their own boat, I can't care anymore." 

Danny guessed she was old enough to take her own decisions and kept his thoughts to himself. 

For an infant like himself, her coldness towards her parents seemed uncalled for, but Danny had never meet them – wasn't even sure which one of them was his niece or nephew. How many children had Jazz and Dean raised again? 

He shook his head and couldn’t help but compare Dani a bit to Sam. Sam had been indifferent towards her parents to and even Danny had to admit it wasn't just angry teen talk. 

He wondered if she had gotten her ghost hunter training from one of them or it had been Jazz's work. Jazz had never believed in ghosts, but her scrapbook clearly said she had believed in him. 

"Hey, Dani, how long have you been a ghost hunter?" 

Dani looked up from her search after the remote, "uhm, actually, I'm not a ghost hunter as such – I just got a few guns and some security systems. Everyone in Amity does, we're a bit of a ghost town, ya know?" 

Danny had had his suspicion, "is it bad?" 

"We're had some bad times and even worse times, but we're getting around it. The mayor promised to enforce some anti-ghost Laws when he's getting reelected next year." 

Danny thought that to be a little too optimistic for a politician, but okay, it was a small backwater community. If he was the only real candidate, the chances of re-election were there, no doubt. 

He sat back in the couch with their bowls, as Dani pushed the black box into a machine below the TV screen and began pushing buttons. 

The ice-cream had begun to melt, and Danny re-froze the bowls with his powers, almost freezing the table in shock when a loud sound came from the screen. 

Dani joined him while the sound and image on the screen rolled over the black screen. Danny’s eyes widened when a spaceship in full colors and roaring sounds flew into the screen. 

Almost forgot all about his food when the empire ship caught up with the rebels. 

"Bees knees," he whispered as Darth Vader took the scene. 

Dani shook her head by his old man slang, but then felt a bit guilty when she noted the black rings under his eyes. 

"Uhm, sorry for making you spend the night on the doorstep." 

Danny smiled a bit, "sorry for crashing your life like this." 

Dani rolled her eyes, "just pay me for those converses and we're even, dude." 

Danny pulled out the content of his pocket and handed her the nuggets with some uncertainty in his voice, "do you think this will cover it?" 

Dani just stared. 

"Is that. Mother. Fucking. GOLD!?"


	39. Danny finds competition and old scars are opened.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Just like Danny, Vlad chose a new identity after their "death"  
>  _Vlad followed Danny with his eyes as Danny opened his closet in a search for a shirt and connected his fingertips, while enjoying the show of the young man’s backside, “hmm, you’ve always know how to play hard to get, but for your information, my dear, it’s Dalv Masters now.”_  
>  _“Dalv Masters,” Danny jeered and buttoned his shirt like every last button had offended him personally, “so what? You changed hair color and first name and expect people to believe some new Masters has walked into town? As if, people are going to see through that.”_  
>  _“On the contrary, people has welcomed Vlad Masters’ russian son to the city with great enthusiasm – especially since he inherited the Masters fortune,” Vlad drawled and sent Danny a pointed look, “after you so charmingly left the castle in ruins, I found myself waking up to hear we had been declared dead."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After his return to the human world, Danny shopped at a newspaper stand  
>  _"How much for the Amity Times and a pack of camels?" Danny asked and the man seemed to warm up a bit as he understood Danny was a potential customer. Weirdly looking, but still a customer._  
>  _"3,11$ – if ya want a doughnut and coffee to go along, it’s gonna be 7,11$ total."_  
>  _Danny searched his backpack with some worry, he didn't have any human money on him now he thought about it, "how much is gold standard today?"_  
>  _The man rose an eyebrow, "come again?"_  
>  _Danny handed him a nugget of pure gold the size of an egg, the only useful valuate in the Ghost Zone._  
>  _"How much will this give me?"_  
>  _When Danny continued his walk, he was then equipped with not just one doughnut, but three large boxes of them, an eight-pack of Prince cigarettes and tall cup of coffee to go. He adjusted the cap on his head and straightened the white T-shit with the red dot on his chest with a smile. Felt the weight of the magazines and newspapers in his backpack, one of each the stand had to offer and found a bench to sit down and enjoy his sugary lunch._
> 
> And spend the rest of the yeti gold on a good course  
>  _Dani rolled her eyes, "just pay me for those converses and we're even, dude."_  
>  _Danny pulled out the content of his pocket and handed her the nuggets with some uncertainty in his voice, "do you think this will cover it?"_  
>  _Dani just stared._  
>  _"Is that. Mother. Fucking. GOLD!?"_
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey guys - HAPPY CHRISTMAS :D  
> here is second part of my christmas gift to you - hope you like it  
> oh and a heads up - In my fic, Danny and Vlad's appearance has changed a bit due to part age and the Zone's influence on their cores. I was looking for a good design, when I stumbled across a design made by the talented and not at least amazing artist "bluebarely".  
> You can see her/his Phantom and Plasmius design if you follow the link here:  
> http://phanamu.tumblr.com/post/155771548927/bluebarely-cries-i-finally-got-my-redesigns-up  
> And other stuff - a lot of 80's music coming up!  
> in this fic, the radio plays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkr77jE5GFY  
> and later a karaoke machine plays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yERildSsWxM
> 
> hope you enjoy and comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 1985, Miss. Dani Thornwood’s house, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_

It was past noon when Danny found his way down to the kitchen. 

He found Dani seated in her cloths for work, munching on cereals and newspaper in hand. A little TV announced the morning news and look a bit out of place in the small kitchen. 

Still, it made Danny happy to see his grandniece spending the gold he had given her on something for herself for a change and he patted the electronic as he entered the kitchen. 

The commercials rolling in after the 06:00 news already chiming in and cartoon animal pirates popping into the screen. 

_“Ohoj! Kellogg’s fruitloop cereal! With natural orange, lemon and cherry flavors and a full day’s supply of vitamin C – part of this complete breakfast. I like fruitloops –”_

“ARRR, I’m hooked,” both Danny and Dani joined in unison and she pushed the box of fruitloops across the table to him without looking up. 

Danny grabbed it before it could slide over the edge without blinking and yawned as he moved his free hand, and made a bowl fly out of the cabin with his telekinesis powers. 

The can of milk and a spoon lifted from the table to land in front of him and Danny digged in like a tired zombie. 

The morning routine they had built up during the five months he had been living here, had proved that both was worthless in the morning and Dani had stopped staring at his misuse of ghost power a few weeks after he had moved in. 

Nowadays she didn’t even get startled when he phased through the ceiling. 

He yawned with dark rings under his eyes and Dani shook her head, still reading and chewing, “you need a real job, Danny. I get that you feel better from patrolling Amity at night and keep your territory free from ghosts, but you could just leave it to the red huntress every second day, ya know?” 

“What? And leave the safety of the city to some hoverboard skating human?” he asked a bit indigitated and began on his second bowl, “besides, it’s not like I can get a real job anyway. People now days don’t hand jobs out to someone who can’t show an ID or prove he’s been borne before Nixon got reelected. And especial not If said person was old enough to vote for Coolidge.” 

Dani snorted, “sometimes I forget you’re ancient. But seriously, like, share the city with the red huntress, okay? Don’t be the greedy kid in the sandbox.” 

“I’ll share when her advertisement’s gets on Phantom’s level. They just opened a second shop downtown selling T-shirts and keychains with my face on it.” 

“You mean ‘Inviso-bill’s’ face. That name is hilarious,” she grinned humored and Danny scowled. 

“Hilarious? Barf me out – one of these days they’re going to get it right and print the right name on those shirts. Trust me.” 

Dani just rolled her eyes and picked up her bag, “whatever, I better get going or I’ll be late for the first class – here’s the shopping list and the dinner is in the fridge. Don’t wait up for me, it’s gonna be late.” 

Danny took the paper and watched her get ready to leave with a knowing smirk, “you do that and tell your secret lover that I said hey.” 

Dani blushed with a scowl, “I’m not going out to see a man, okay? I’m going out with some friends.” 

“Suuuuuure,” Danny teased and grinned at her subtle try to all but run for the car. 

“Shut up!” she snapped and slammed the door, but then opened it again with a shout, “and don’t forget to buy milk!” 

Danny tipped his bowl to get the rest of his sugary milk while the sound of the Peugeot 505 left the driveway and headed for the local high school. He went to clean up the breakfast table, when he caught sight of the frontpage of the newspaper. 

“Inviso-bill. Superhero ghost or foe in disguise?” he read out loud and read the note about the red huntress below. 

Her identity was still unknown, but apparently some experts was more than ensured she was a human, unlike this new hero. Danny scoffed and continued to read. The police advise people to stay out of their business and leave the security of the city to the force. 

Something the writer of the article made fun of – like the police had ever been effective against ghosts. 

Danny snorted, “you’re damn right.” 

He turned off the TV and read the shopping list Dani had left him, as he pulled on his leather jacket and locked the door behind him. He looked around to see if he was alone and then transformed and shot for the sky. 

The wind rushed through his hair and he ran a hand through it, tried to get use to the haircut. Unlike his human half’s long hair, he had been convinced by his grandniece to try and separate his two halves’ appearance to keep his secret better hidden. 

That meant he had sat down on a chair in the kitchen and entrusted his white hair in her care. 

Something he hadn’t been that certain had been a good idea at first. But after a few days of getting use to the look and the nice pictures in the papers, Danny had come to like the left side-cut and spiked hair. 

It made him look more in touch with his ice core and all in all… younger. 

It felt good to be young again. 

He soon landed outside the cemetery and he phased through the gates to walk the last stretch to the tombstone on foot. Jazz’s headstone greeted him with its golden letters and Danny dusted it off and removed the old flowers to replace them with new ones. 

“Hey, Jazz – you to Dean. You two look stoned.” 

He snickered by his own bad pun and scratched his hair, the white hair tickling his neck. He had made it a thing to visit this place once a week and the calm atmosphere of the quiet place actually made him feel better. 

He inhaled the september air and could already smell the autumn just around the corner. 

“Dani is sneaking out most nights now. I don’t know who she’s seeing, she won’t tell me. Should I follow her and find out?” 

The tombstone stayed silent, but Danny nodded as if Jazz had given him an advice, “you’re right, she’s a grown woman and should have her privacy. It would be wrong of me to spy on her. She can tell me if she wants. No stress.” 

The flowers swayed in the wind and Danny smiled a bit. For the first time in many years he felt like he had come to terms with his existence. 

The dark days of guilt and nightmares seemed somewhat behind him and the time in the Far Frozen had made him come to terms with the blood on his hand and hatred for those who had wronged him. 

Danny felt good. Content. Like things would be okay. 

Like he was okay. 

“I think I like it here,” Danny continued quietly, “it’s not much – nothing like New York, but I think it suits me right. I know I can’t stay forever, but when I wake up now a day…I feel as if it would be alright if I did…” 

The wind rushed through his hair and Danny pretended that it was Jazz’s way of responding. 

He smiled as he patted the headstone and stood to leave, “I see you in a week, Jazz. Good talk.” 

He sat course for shopping and shot into the air again. The feeling of freedom filling him with the sound of his white cloak in the wind. The city of Amity Park stretched below him and he put up speed. 

Danny grinned with showing fangs and flew lower to fly in and out between the cars, making it a wild game of speed and reflexes, dodging in and out of cars and went intangible when two trucks would get to close. 

Danny laughed with the wind and howled the faster he went. 

The grocery store arrived sooner than he liked, but he was out for shopping and not speed tickets, so better stop while the game was fun and all. He transformed behind a dumpster and ventured into the store with shopping list ready in hand as a human. 

They were almost out of fruitloops and he picked three boxes. The gold he had given Dani was still paying all their expenses and more so. 

He was half through the list when a childish whim went over him and he jumped onto the footboard of the shopping cart and pushed it forward. 

“Whuuuhuuu!” he grinned and rushed down the aisle and picked out the things he needed on the way. 

An older woman yelled at him and two children laughed as he rushed by, making Danny smile and put up speed. He put the brakes in right before the fruit department when blue mist left his lips and a motorcycle with two ghosts phased right through the wall at his left. 

The people at the store jumped out of the way, as the ghostly motorcycle and its riders drove straight through the store and left destruction is their trail. 

“Not on my watch,” he mumbled and took advantage of the panic to transform unnoticed behind an overturned shelf and flew after the two ghosts. 

The female on the back of the motorcycle turned around to watch him with a scowl. 

She was a sexy thing with green locks and heavy eyeliner, sporting a short skirt with fish thighs and red leatherjacket Jackson style. She yelled something to the biker in front of her through the loud engine and he nodded. 

“Excuse me,” Danny called, “I believe you’re speeding.” 

The biker growled at him, “I show you speeding! Shadow, attack!” 

Danny rose an eyebrow and yelped a second later as a black shade left the bike’s shadow and jumped him. Danny hadn’t seen that coming and was taken by surprise – probably the only reason this shadow got a hit on him in the first place. 

The black fist hit his cheekbone and Danny snorted by the weak hit, “oh please” and shot it to pieces. 

The ghost chick widened her eyes in fear and the two pressed the engine to get away. But now Danny had gotten the taste for the hunt and shot past them to phase out of the store and wait for them outside. 

The biker phased out through the wall a second later, assured that he had made Danny eat his dust and then shouted in surprise when Danny appeared right in front of him and grabbed the front wheel. 

The wheel stopped instantly by his strength and made the rest of the bike stand vertically. The move sent the two ghosts flying out on the parking lot’s grass covered part and Danny let go of the bike to make it fall down behind him. 

The biker was the first to get up and rub his sore head, and he hurried to the female with concern. 

“Kitty? Babe, are you okay?” 

“I’m fine Johnny,” she assured and gasped when Danny appeared behind her boyfriend’s back, “babe, look out!” 

But Johnny wasn’t fast enough and Danny had him in a green chain before he could as much as lift a fist. He captured Kitty as she tried to run and tied them together to make sure they stayed put. 

A crowd of people had gathered out of the corner of his eye, but Danny couldn’t be bothered. 

“Listen up lovebirds, this is my territory – that means no trespassing, okay?” 

“We can go where we want,” Johnny growled, trying to be threatening and Danny rolled his eyes at the pathetic attempt. 

“Let me guess, you two were spawned less than a year ago? Months? There are rules to this – when you enter a territory and you see a green symbol in the sky, it means there’s a ghost with a claim on it. If you want to pass or walk in, you have to ask for permission or fight for it. Kapish?” 

Kitty nodded, but Johnny just scowled. Clearly not one to take orders or follow rules set by others. A real troublemaker it seemed – weak and newly spawned, but annoying none the less. 

A red ecto-shot hitting his back made Danny groan and the chain dissolved. He turned around to find a red-clad woman on a hovering board. A smoking ecto-blaster in hand and the usual helmet masking her face. 

Danny scowled as the crowd cheered for her. 

“Do we have to do this? I was just taking care of those gh…” 

Danny dragged a hand down his face when he found that both ghosts had taken the distraction to flee on the motorcycle and he looked up as the red huntress shot after them. 

He frowned and knew he probably shouldn’t take the bait, but his pride had its needs and he built up energy, before he released it and shot into the shy with maximum speed. 

“What the!?” the huntress shouted when a white lighting pass her and took the lead. 

She leaned forward to become more aerodynamic on the board and put up speed to take up the challenge. Danny saw her advance out of the corner of his eye and flew up to the two ghosts. 

Flew alongside them om a lax position like he was lying on an invisible couch. 

“Not to stress you two or anything, but if I had to choose between me or that ghost hunter, I would go with the one that don’t make a living out of making specters an extinct species. Just saying.” 

“I don’t take advice from a nerd,” Johnny sneered and tried to outrun Danny, but the machine was no match for the 85-year-old halfa. 

“Hey, I get it. You two want to be wild and free and all that. But is this really the time and place to play macho in front of your girl and risk losing her to a smoking gun?” 

A series of blasts shot past the bike and Danny threw up a shield to protect him and the ghosts from the shower of ecto-shots. 

Kitty bit her lip, “Johnny, maybe we should listen to him!” 

“No way!” he snapped and then pale a bit when a bomb made the bike capsize a bit, “okay, what do you suggest, ghost-man?” 

Danny grinned with white fangs, “well, I could help you two cross over, but given that the two of you are pretty young and probably still high on immortality, I’ll say you would like my offer of an easy escape to the Ghost Zone better.” 

“But we just came from there!” Kitty groaned and then screamed as the bike was shot and she almost fell. 

Danny caught her before that could happen and helped her back on the bike. 

“Alright we’ll take it!” Johnny yelled panicked and steered the bike to try and shake of the huntress. 

Danny began collecting the needed energy for a portal and flew out in front of them. 

“And then stay there okay?” he said and received a somewhat nod from them both. 

He guessed it was the best he could get and formed the portal in front of himself. The bike and its passengers flew into it and he closed it again in time to be met with the sight of the huntress coming right at him. 

“This is gonna hurt,” he barely winced before they collided with a hard smack and fell through the air. 

Their collision sent them on a course for the flat roof of the office building beneath and Danny turned on purpose to take the fall and save the smaller woman from breaking every bone in her body. 

She bounced of him as they hit the building and rolled a few times across the roof, while he remained in the crater he had created and groaned from the impact. 

“Timber,” he whispered painfully and cracked his back a few times as he sat up. 

He tilted his head in time to evade a shot for his head and looked back at the huntress with a glare. 

“WOULD YOU STOP THAT!?” 

“What? Can’t take a hit, ghost?” she jeered and charged again. 

Danny hurried out of the crater and jumped back in a backflip to land on his feet again and kept dodging the incoming blast. 

“This is getting old,” he growled, “we have been fighting like this for months now – I’m not an evil ghost, okay?” 

“Ghosts will say anything to get off easy,” she sneered and called her board to her. 

Danny jumped over the edge of the building and she chased him, making her board fly straight down vertical with the building. Danny kept running down and zigzagged, while she shot at him with her collection of weapons. 

He shook his head by her stubbornness, before turning to run backwards and made a show of dodging easy with a grin. 

“My theory is that you’re some kinda test pilot working at Axion lap. You got all their weapons and their latest inventions. But don’t worry, I won’t tell even if I bothered to look up your identity.” 

“Eat shit and die, spook!” she growled and charged up to maximum and fired. 

Danny yelped when a massive energy ball of ecto-energy came right at him and pushed of the building with his feet. He watched as the ball hit the street and exploded into a large dome. 

The huntress didn’t have time to straight up and threw her arms up in protection, before the blast could engulf her and her board. 

She waited for the collision with the blasted pavement, but only felt the wind rush past her and lifted her arms from her face to find that he had been spared an early death by the very same ghost she had tried to kill. 

Danny lowered them to the smoking street and released her from the bride-style hold. She pushed him of her and ran to check up on her board. 

Danny blew a strand of white hair out of his face, “you’re welcome!” 

She ignored him as she digged in the crater and lifted blocks of loose concrete till she found what she was looking for. Danny peaked over the edge of the crater to see her wresting the board out of the water and loose pipes in the bottom of the hole. 

“Is it okay?” he asked, as she looked it over and even though he couldn’t see her face, he could tell she was glaring at him over her shoulder. 

“Why do you care?” 

“It’s a schweet board, would be a shame if it broke,” he admitted, “well, I’m gotta go now, I have shopping to do – see you around I’ll guess.” 

He left before she could shoot at him again and turned invisible as he took the long way back to his starting point. He cracked his back again as he phased back into the grocery store. 

He found his toppled card and replaced the frozen food that had thawed while he was gone. Blended in perfectly with the rest of the humans, as he reached the cashier and payed for the damaged food, before packing all his stuff into two plastic bags and went home. 

He had to admit it felt good to be part of humanity again – although with a double identity to hid. He whistled as he took the flight home and turned back human as he reached the little brickhouse. 

Dani’s car wasn’t in the garage and he remembered she would be out with her secret lover tonight and guessed he could hang out of his own. He decided to eat out for a change and head out to kill the small hours before nightfall. 

The walk through the streets had become one of Danny’s new habits and he took in the view of the city as he made his lonely stride. The world seemed in such a rush to him. 

This century didn’t seem to have any chill and if it had been a person, it would be running for the horizon, fight to be new, trendy and always on with the flow. 

Danny stopped by a television shop and saw how a new technological wonder model had taken the spot of its week younger predecessor. He shook his head and continued his goalless walk. 

It was times like these when he wasn’t occupied or with Dani to keep him busy, that his head would run wild and thoughts return to the one thing that was always on his mind. 

_Vlad._

Danny had expected him to come around by now, but after five months, the halfa still hadn’t made his pompous entrance or shown his face. 

And now Danny had a suspicion why. 

It had been a week after his return to the human world and the first day of Dani’s return to work. Without her to keep him company, he had been forced to spend an entire day to himself. 

Without any better ideas, he had walked around most of the house and ended up in his bedroom. 

He had already cleaned the house, made his trip to the cemetery and prepared dinner, when he just decided to hang out in his room and remembered the stack of newspapers and magazines he had brought at the newspaper stand, back when he’d first arrived at Amity Park. 

Without better things to do, he had picked up the stack, made himself a cup of coffee and sat down in the kitchen to read. 

If any, he could educate himself a bit and use the paper to pack down the things Dani had wanted to keep after they’d finished the boxes in the living room. 

Danny had been deep into the articles about the threat of the Soviet Union and incoming presidential election between Reagan and Carter, when a magazine had made him choke on his coffee. 

He had immediately forgot all about coffee, as he had pressed the _‘Fortunate magazine’_ to his nose with a bewildered expression. 

“’Vlad Master – 1985, man of the year’!? What the fuck?” Danny screeched and picked up the next magazine, this time it was the _‘Sporting Illustrated’_. 

Vlad was on the front and held a green helmet with a serious look. Danny read the text, “’let me buy the packers!’? He’s still hunting football teams? What a nerd.” 

Now that Danny was aware, several of the newspapers and magazines was mentioning Vlad in one way or another and Danny flipped through them all with an expression that called absolutely bullshit. 

“He’s pretending to be his own grandson now!? That’s so loopy – Vlad you can’t play you own family three times in a row!” 

The more he read the more fucked up it got. Apparently, Vlad hadn’t only been busy hunting pages in the ghost world, he had been out advertising himself in the human world to. 

An article told of how he managed to buy million-dollar companies that had been untouchable for decades and craved his way through the world’s business sphere like a hot knife through butter. 

Making him one of the world’s leading juggernaut and few billionaires to grace this earth. 

There was no talking of a mother to this so called “Vlad Masters the II”, just a short mention that he was the sole heir to the decreased trade company owner Dalv Masters and had inherited all from the Masters name. 

Danny snorted, how many people had Vlad been forced to overshadow to fake that kinda identity switch? How many millionaires to get their power? 

Honestly, he didn’t wanna know and noted that Vlad had gone back to wear his natural silver hair color and goatee. But the hair was shorter now, low buzzcuts with bangs and the winning smirk still in place. His modern black suit in place. 

The red bolo tie and glasses was new though. But if he had to pretend to be from Wisconsin now, a change of attire was probably in order and the glasses changed a lot to. 

Danny knew all about changes and even he had to admit Vlad had played out his new identity nicely. No holes in that image. And speaking of image… 

Danny felt a light blush spread on his cheeks by a series of photos in a woman’s magazine, showing Vlad from a more casual and less business focused side. Danny turned the magazine sideways to get the entire fold-out page and bit his lip. 

Vlad was showed seated on a throne with a white tiger in a golden leash by his feet. His hair was a bit messy in a sexy way and his midnight eyes lidded. 

The black shirt had been opened with three buttons and his toned chest peaked out, a hint of his muscles could clearly be spotted and shadows only highlighting the lines. A fanged smirk and the spotless slacks tight in all the right places. 

For some reason the tiger seemed familiar, but the man somewhat took all Danny’s focus. 

“Oh, my god, I hate you so much,” Danny groaned and collected all the papers about Vlad. He had phased them into his mattress and told himself it was for study of Vlad’s comings and goings. 

Assured himself it was to track the man’s movements and not at all admiration. 

Now months after, Danny kicked an old can down the street and tried shaking the image of his enemy out of his head. The fact that Vlad was out there making his life elsewhere should have been a relief to him, but all Danny felt was annoyance. 

Was he ignoring Danny now? After all these years? 

Him!? 

“Whatever, see if I care,” Danny grumbled and his frown only deepened when lyrics a little too close to his situation streamed down the street.

 

_“Come and get your love_  
_Come and get your love_  
_Come and get your love_  
_Come and get your love”_

 

_“Hell what the matter with your feel right don't you feel right baby_  
_Hell oh ya get it from the mainline all right_  
_I said find it find it come and rub it if you like it yeah_  
_Hell (hell) it's your business_  
_If you want some take some_  
_Get it together baby.”_

 

Danny followed the faint sound the radio and stopped outside an arcade. 

It appeared to be one of those new entertaining halls for teens and kids – not a great one, but not that shady either. He looked in through the window and saw a few kids still lingering along with a single teen or two. 

The smell of cheap pizza and sound of game tunes made Danny semi interested and he opened to door. The two doors slid open and the guy at the desk looked up. 

The man somewhat peaked up by the sight of Danny and encouraged by this friendly welcome, Danny walked up to the desk and smiled in return. 

“Hey, you wanna buy some tickets or some pizza, man?” the guy asked and Danny took a look at the display of prizes and snack options behind him. 

“Actually, I was just curious, I’ve never been in an arcade before and wanted to try a game or two – you got any Hawaii pizza slices?” Danny asked and couldn’t help but compare the guy to Tucker, as they seemed to have the same smile. 

“We do, one slice coming up – you really never been in an arcade before?” 

Danny just smiled to the dark-skinned man and caught himself checking out the guy when he turned around to cut his order. The guy was handsome alright. Skin like chocolate and a wild expression with those black dreadlocks and smiling dimples. 

Nice ass to. 

Danny shook his head, what a creep he was. He had to be the same age as this kid’s grandpa at least. 

“Here ya go, sugar,” the barista smiled and Danny looked up in surprise. Was he flirting with him? 

“So you’re gonna play anything?” he continued as if he hadn’t just called Danny by a sweet nickname and concentrated on sorting out a stack of tickets. 

Danny took a bite of his pizza and noted he had been given extra pineapples. 

“You got _Pac-man_ or something like _Donkey-Kong?_ Kid’s always blabbering about those games.” 

“You really never played on a machine before? You’re clearly not from here.” 

“And how can you tell?” Danny asked and learned forward on his elbows. 

The barista whose name turned out to be “Nick” due to the name-tag at his breast pocket, just pointed to Danny’s open jacket with a pizza cutter. 

“Other than the fact this is your first time in an arcade? You’re not carrying an ecto-gun,” he clarified, “people in this town began sporting an anti-ghost gadget as soon as they’re old enough to leave their own backyard. There’s not a sane person in this place that don’t carry at least one kinda arms this time a day. It’s almost closing time and night fall. It gets dangerous out there, ya know?” 

Danny turned his head and saw as the darkness had begun to fall outside and the most of the arcade’s patrons was leaving for the day. 

He shrugged and took a bite, “I can watch out for myself, anyway, what’s with the sheet back there?” 

Nick followed his thumb to the covered machine at the backwall of the arcade. He sighed tiredly, “it’s a new game I just got from Japan. Its huge back there and everyone loves it, but I can’t get any of the kids to play it because it’s a singing game. Shame though, its brand new and everything, even got an option of new American songs in it.” 

Danny munched on his pizza thoughtfully, “have you ever considered just hiring a singer? If the kids saw a person having fun on it, I’m sure they would at least try it out.” 

Nick sent him a look, “know anyone? It’s not the best pay I’m afraid, but you have to start somewhere I guess.” 

“Well…I can sing a bit, give it a shot.” 

“You can sing?” 

Danny shrugged, “I once sang at a club in New York –” 

“Great,” Nick grinned and jumped over the desk to pull him out of his chair. 

Danny stumbled after him still with pizza in hand and was placed in front of the game, while Nick ripped the sheet of and revealed a large karaoke machine in shining chrome and neon colors. 

Danny had barely finished his food before Nick had placed the stick into a socket and made the screen light up with colorful Japanese letters and figures. 

He added a coin, pushed a few buttons and scrolled down to choose one of the song actually written in English and pressed start. 

Danny gulped and looked down at the microphone Nick had pushed into his hand. He cleared his throat and frowned a bit as music began to play. 

“What song is it?” he asked lamely and Nick grinned. 

“It’s Cat Stevens, just read the words and sing along, it’s supposed to be fun.” 

Danny watched the screen and tried getting into it. It was a little stumbling at first, as he had no idea where in the text he was, but then he got the hold of it and began to sing.

 

_“It's not time to make a change_  
_Just relax, take it easy_  
_You're still young, that's your fault_  
_There's so much you have to know_  
_Find a girl, settle down_  
_If you want you can marry_  
_Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.”_

 

__

_“I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy_  
_To be calm when you've found something going on_  
_But take your time, think a lot_  
_Why, think of everything you've got_  
_For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.”_

 

_“How can I try to explain, when I do he turns away again_  
_It's always been the same, same old story_  
_From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen_  
_Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away_  
_I know I have to go.”_

 

He stopped when tears began to roll down his cheek and dried them tiredly. 

He regretted singing this song already. It reminded him to much of the past, too much of the unsaid things between him and the man he had once trusted, but then had been betrayed by. 

The man he’d had a crush on without knowing and had his young heart crushed to piece at the same. 

Vlad wasn’t his father, would never be, just as Danny wasn’t his son, but this song was more than he could take. 

This had been a mistake. 

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” he apologized and rushed out before Nick could call him back. 

The warm summer night greeted him with all its promises, but Danny didn’t have the heart to enjoy them and transformed to fly to the skies to clear his head. 

When he finally returned home, Dani’s car rested in the driveway and Danny guessed he had been out longer than first assumed. He transformed before he locked himself in and Dani popped her head out of the kitchen. 

“Hey, you’re home late? Went out to eat or something?” 

Danny put on a smile for her sake, “found a diner slash coffeeshop downtown. I think the barista was flirting with me.” 

Dani grinned, “sounds like the adventure – now get in here, there’s something I want to show you.” 

Danny hung his jacket by the door and walked to the kitchen with forced excitement, “what is it? A new television?” 

“Better,” she promised and began rummaging her bag, “you remember you said you couldn’t get a job because of papers?” 

“Yeah”, Danny confirmed and took a seat, “how was your date anyway?” 

“None of ya,” she just replied and placed an envelope on the table and pushed it to him, “take a look.” 

Danny looked from her excited expression to the envelope and opened it. A driving license greeted him and Danny rose an eyebrow when his own name and picture looked back. 

A birth certificate, several other ID’s and personal papers found their way to his hand, and Danny looked them over in stunned silence. He remembered Dani taking some pictures of him, but haven’t caught the fact that they could be used for ID’s. 

“What do ya think?” she asked after a little while and Danny held up a library card. 

“Born in 1960?” 

“Hey, you can easily go for someone who’s twenty-five,” she grinned and stacked the plastic cards neatly, “there’s even a credit card for the bank account I have opened in your name. You can live on the gold on it until you begin making real money. Rad huh?” 

Danny was speechless, but then snapped out of it, “how did you? How…what did you?” 

“Don’t think about it,” she just replied offhandedly with a smug look, “a friend helped me and hey, now you got an identity. Congratulation, Daniel James Fenton. You’re now a real living American citizen of Amity Park.” 

Dani rose, still grinning by her own cunning and clapped his shoulder, “oh, and according to the birth certificate, we’re now real cousins. It’s all taken care of.” 

Danny turned in the chair to get a deeper explanation to all this, when he caught sight of the red color smeared on her neck. Dani clearly hadn’t seen it in the mirror, else she would surely have removed it before he came home. 

Danny smirked. Dani didn’t wear lipstick. 

But apparently, her secret lover did.


	40. The secret to healing is not to replace those you lost, but to embrace those you have

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny once came to terms with his sexuality  
>  _“I don’t want you to feel like a failure just because our relationship didn’t work out,” Sam said and send him a glance he chose not to take as pitiful, “take a break from all this self-loathing, would you? You don’t have to give up on a future because of your past. Vlad doesn’t define you. You’re not homosexual just because he –”_  
>  _“I think I was already before him, Sam.”_  
>  _She turned to look at him now, as in really look at him and Danny felt a sudden sting of unrest in his guts._  
>  _She pursed her lips, not sure of what to say, “what changed? Or when, I suppose.”_  
>  _“Around when we were fourteen, I think,” Danny replied slowly._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Vlad admits to himself that he had planted the evil seed in Danny's heart  
>  _“What’s wrong? Aren’t you proud of what I’ve become?” Dan asked cruelly and a fanged smile suddenly bloomed on his face, “aren’t you proud of your **son?** ”_  
>  _The words snapped something within Vlad and it took him a long time to understand that it was his heart. For the first time in his life, Vlad came to terms with the consequences of his own actions. This was his doing, his creation, all his. His son._  
>  _His reflection._  
>  _Tears ran down his cheeks and dripped to the pavement where the blood of Phantoms’ victims had collected in puddles._
> 
> Now 40 years after Paris, Danny helps his grandniece out in Amity  
>  _Dani decided question time was over and turned to her driveway. Both of them was a little surprised to see a man standing by the garage and Dani mumbled a curse under her breath when it became clear the guy was writing with a spray can on the white garage door._  
>  She speeded up and hit the brakes in the last second before she hit him. The guy jumped back in shock and then send them an angry look.  
> "Motherfucker," Dani sneered and stepped out of the car with angry strides.  
>  _"Is there a problem here?" Danny asked and the man looked from him to Dani and his frown deepened._  
>  _"Who the fuck is this sucker? Do you fuck him to?"_  
>  _"He's my cousin, Jake," Dani sneered, "don't go and get all jealous again, you moron."_  
>  _"Oh yeah," he jeered sarcastic, "’cause being a cousin fucker would be sooo out of your wide preferences, wouldn’t it, you slut?"_  
>  _Dani slapped him and Jake raised a fist to return the favor, but Danny had already decided that this was enough and grabbed his arm._  
>  _"You don't hit a woman," he warned and pushed him back._  
>  _"Whatever," Jake growled and stuck his hands in his pockets to talk away._  
>  _"Who was that fella again?" Danny asked._  
>  _She rolled her eyes in annoyance, "just my psycho ex. I broke up with him a month ago, but he's still a total dickhead about it and keeps bugging me."_  
>  _Danny gave the garage door a look, " **'Dyke'** , is that a curse word or something?"_  
>  _Dani had stiffened by the word and scowled angry, "it’s a slur, just forget it."_
> 
> But life in Amity seems filled with opportunities  
>  _Nick followed his thumb to the covered machine at the backwall of the arcade. He sighed tiredly, “it’s a new game I just got from Japan. Its huge back there and everyone loves it, but I can’t get any of the kids to play it because it’s a singing game. Shame though, its brand new and everything, even got an option of new American songs in it.”_  
>  _Danny munched on his pizza thoughtfully, “have you ever considered just hiring a singer? If the kids saw a person having fun on it, I’m sure they would at least try it out.”_  
>  _Nick sent him a look, “know anyone? It’s not the best pay I’m afraid, but you have to start somewhere I guess.”_  
>  _“Well…I can sing a bit, give it a shot.”_  
>  _“You can sing?”_
> 
> And Danny continues to be the hero of Amity  
>  _Danny kept running down and zigzagged, while the red huntress shot at him with her collection of weapons._  
>  _“My theory is that you’re some kinda test pilot working at Axion lap. You got all their weapons and their latest inventions. But don’t worry, I won’t tell even if I bothered to look up your identity.”_  
>  _“Eat shit and die, spook!” she growled and charged up to maximum and fired. Danny yelped when a massive energy ball of ecto-energy came right at him and pushed of the building with his feet. He watched as the ball hit the street and exploded into a large dome. The huntress didn’t have time to straight up and threw her arms up in protection. She waited for the collision with the blasted pavement, but only felt the wind rush past her and lifted her arms from her face to find that he had been spared an early death by the very same ghost she had tried to kill._
> 
> And now he's a legal person  
>  _Danny was speechless as he saw the new ID, but then snapped out of it, “how did you? How…what did you?”_  
>  _“Don’t think about it,” she just replied offhandedly with a smug look, “a friend helped me and hey, now you got an identity. Congratulation, Daniel James Fenton. You’re now a real living American citizen. oh, and according to the birth certificate, we’re now real cousins. It’s all taken care of.”_  
>  _Danny turned in the chair to get a deeper explanation to all this, when he caught sight of the red color on her neck. Dani didn’t wear lipstick. But apparently, her secret lover did._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey People :)  
> I have to post a little yearly today, since i wont have internet around 00:00  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA_

“Did he ever get the Green Bay Packers?” 

Danny snapped out of his story and send the cop a look, “what?” 

Nichols stubbed his cigarette, “Vlad, did he ever come to own the football team? I’ll swear I’ve heard something about it. Its’ weird, the name Masters doesn’t say me anything, but I’m sure I’ve heard something about a Packer sale back in the time.” 

Danny shook his head, “no, Vlad never got them. It made him pretty pissed to receive a refusal every time, but I guess that’s life. There’s things money just can’t buy.” 

“Like your love?” Nichols joked, but the hurt look he received in return made him regret it instantly, “uhm, sorry, I didn’t mean –” 

“No, you’re right,” Danny said and hugged himself with an unreadable expression, “my love was never for sale…no matter which valuate he used. I guess I just didn’t have any heart left for him to own. I still had feelings for him of course. We had more than just a shared past of memories. More than just nights of unsaid words. But love? No, no I never loved Vlad. I never came to love anyone fully.” 

Nichols was saddened by that and waited for Danny to find the words again. The immortal sighed as he collected himself and tried to find a better position in the uncomfortable chair. 

“Dani was another story though. She was young and in love, I could tell. She would zoom out and giggle suddenly when she thought I didn’t hear. I waited for her to come out to me, but it took longer than expected…I think she was afraid.” 

“To admit she was gay?” Nichols asked curious, “the lipstick and slur on the garage door seem to point to it, don’t ya think?” 

The corner of Danny’s lip tugged into a smirk, “you think coming out of the closet was easier I the 80’s than it is now? She didn’t know about my preferences and I never told her either, afraid she would have judged me until I realized we had that in comment. She finally admitted it a few weeks later. Her ex had tried to break in to burn the house down, but unfortunate for him, I was at home.” 

Nichols shared Danny’s smirk, “did you beat him up?” 

Danny nodded, “yeah, but I didn’t get that far. Dani came home and put a stop to it. She called the cops instead and they took him with them. But before they could get him onto the car, he made us all aware that he was in his good right to burn a lesbian’s house down.” 

Nichols winced, “ouch.” 

“Yeah,” Danny sighed, “she cried in her room that night. Afraid the entire town would know and she would lose her job. She didn’t. Her girlfriend made sure of that.” 

“Sound like a powerful woman,” the cop noted and Danny nodded allegedly. 

“No shit, she was practically running Amity Park. She even intimidated me and that says a lot at that time,” Danny suddenly smiled, “Dani’s a good kid, I still chat with her over the phone when I have one and once in a while I visit her in Amity. She’s happy there, both her and her wife. Their son is CEO for one of the world’s greatest ghost research facilities.” 

That made Nichols smile, he liked happy endings, “and you two got the talk after her break down?” 

Danny nodded, “she put all cards on the table that morning. So did I…well, most of them.”

 

 _Year 1985, Miss. Dani Thornwood’s house, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_

_**“She put all cards on the table that morning. So did I…well, most of them.”** _

 

He found her in the kitchen. 

He could tell that she had been crying again, the tear streaked cheeks telling him all he had to know. She was in her pajamas and not her cloths for work, just another sign that she wasn’t alright. 

She hadn’t discovered him in the door, to focused on the newspaper – which was normal – but the way she caressed the photo on the front page wasn’t. 

Danny couldn’t see the picture from here, but he had his suspicion of who it could be from the way Dani stared at it with longing and hurt affection. 

He knocked on the doorframe to alert her of his presence and she looked up stunned. Hurried to turn the paper and hide her emotions. 

“Danny, uhm…morning…” 

“Morning,” he replied and slowly took a seat in front of her, treading the water carefully and tried to find the best opening to tell her what she needed to hear. 

“There’s coffee,” she started, but then realized her untouched cup had gone cold and so had the pot on the table, “uhm…well I can make some.” 

“It’s okay,” he promised and made her sit down again, “Dani, I think we have to talk.” 

“About what?” she all but sneered, looked down at her nails to clean them like a stubborn child that didn’t want a lecture. Danny acted as nothing, 

“About last night. Jake made you very upset with what he said and who he said it to.” 

“He’s lying –” she hurried to utter, but Danny shook his head. 

“He wasn’t right to say what he did, but I think we both know he wasn’t lying, Dani. Is there something you like to tell me? It’s okay if you don’t want to, but it’s nothing to be ashamed of.” 

Dani bit her lip, clearly uncomfortable and dried her cheeks annoyed, “you’re just saying that. Everyone is ashamed of me. My mother, my father, my friends…” 

“But not Jazz,” Danny concluded and Dani looked up. 

“No…never granny. She said that we as humans should keep an open mind to all experiences and never –” 

“ – judge what we can’t understand,” Danny finished, “yeah, I got that talk to. But I had no idea what she was trying to imply at that time. I had no idea I was gay until years later.” 

Dani just stared at him, “you…you’re gay?” 

“Does it surprise you?” he asked openly and then deadpanned like he had just realized something horrible, “maybe they’re right, _die homosexual is a genetic ding, gentlemen._ ” 

Dani couldn’t help but smiling a bit by his bad German scientist imitation and dried her eyes again, now more calm and relaxed. 

“I found out when I was still dating Jake,” she admitted, “I never really felt right with him or any other boy for that matter. I thought there was something wrong with me until I meet a woman. A woman like me…she’s older though.” 

“Been there,” Danny admitted and sighed, “but she treats you right? Makes you happy and respects your boundaries?” 

Dani blinked surprised, “of course. She’s not some sugar mama I sleep with for money. Those ID and paper I got you was a favor she did me gladly. She wanted to help me get you an honest living.” 

She suddenly looked at him differently, “you used to date an older man?” 

Danny nodded, but when shook his head, “dating is a strong word in my case. I’ll say it was a one-sided affair – had to keep it secret and all back in the 1920’s. He didn’t really give me a choice on the matter. Didn’t respect me, although he insisted on it being for my own good when he took me with force and kept me close. He said he loved me, but…it wasn’t love.” 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Dani said quietly and Danny send her a tired look. 

“I got over it. We’ve had our ups and downs during the years. It still hurts sometime, but it’s been almost forty years since I’ve seen him now, I doubt that he still thinks of me anymore.” 

Dani made a confused face, “what do ya mean? If he was older than you he’s got to be dead by now – unless he’s hundred? Do you visit him in a nursing home or something?” 

Danny realized he had let his mouth run of with him again and grinned sheepish, “uhm…well the things is, he’s a halfa to.” 

“There’s another half-ghost out there? You got an immortal lover?” Dani asked astonished and Danny scratched his neck. 

“Well, more of an archenemy, than lover…” 

“You have an _archenemy_!?” 

“Maybe? I don’t know – a lot have changed and he hasn’t come to reclaim me –” 

“ _Reclaim_!?” she shouted, “you have an evil halfa lusting for you out there!?” 

Danny snorted and couldn’t help but laughing, “ _lusting_ for me? What do ya think this is? – _Lolita_?” 

“How can you joke about this?” she asked, more curious than revolted and Danny just shrugged. 

“It was long time ago, Dani. And something tells me he’s really sorry. He cried last time I saw him.” 

“That doesn’t change or justify what he did to you,” she scowled with scrunched nose and Danny poked it with a light smile. 

“It never will, but I’ve moved on and we’ve both grown since then. Can’t hold a grudge forever, now can I? That wouldn’t be living my life. That would be living in the past.” 

“Still,” she muttered and rubbed her nose, “is he coming here?” 

Danny shook his head, “no. He has his own life to live now. We both have – so, are you going to introduce me to that girlfriend of yours or are you going to keep that to yourself a while longer?” 

Dani replied by flipping the newspaper back and turned it for him to see. 

_**'CEO Miss. Valerie Gray opens new ghost research center. Axion Lab expanse to the largest ghost company ever to be founded.'**_

“Wow,” Danny whistled and took in the picture of the dark shorthaired woman looking all powerful and picture perfect, “clearly, we both have a thing for older handsome CEOs with heavy checkbooks.” 

Dani wacked him over the head with the newspaper, “don’t make me sound like a gold digger!” 

Danny just laughed and she yelped when he tried wrestling the roll from her playfully. Danny had run out into the hallways with the newspaper roll and Dani right behind him, when they both came to a halt by the knocking on the door. 

“You’re expecting anyone?” Danny asked and Dani shook her head and pulled her pajamas back in place before she opened the door. 

Danny stopped on his way back to the kitchen by the sound of her little surprised yelp and hurried back to open the door wide. 

Valerie Gray moved her eyes from Dani to him and Danny gulped a bit by the piercing look of those green eyes. The woman was even more intimidating than her photos. 

From the shoulder padded yellow business suit designed by Vouge, to the pointy toes and the short afro, the woman was the image of mean sexy business. 

“You must be the fake cousin,” she noted drily with a raised eyebrow and Danny crossed his arms. 

“And you must be the middle age suitor.” 

Dani hurried to get in between them, as she sensed the bad tension and gave Danny a push with her hip to get him of the doorframe and let Valerie in. 

“Hey, Val. Didn’t expect to see you before tomorrow.” 

Valerie’s hard demeanor softened a bit as broke the staring contest of with Danny and pulled Dani in for a hug, “you weren’t at work. What gives?” 

Dani sighed into the yellow suit, “everyone knows. I’m not going to work just to get fired.” 

“Of course, you’re not getting fired,” Valerie assured her better knowing and released her to stare Danny down, “so, should I greet you as Danny Fenton or Danny Phantom?” 

Danny had been ready to present himself, but stiffened now in shock and Dani send him a sheepish smile, “sorry, but I don’t keep secrets for Valerie.” 

“DANI!” 

“Relax, she told me today,” Valerie just scoffed and closed the door behind her and lifted a sweet-smelling paper bag, “I brought breakfast by the way. We can talk in the kitchen.” 

The two females walked to the kitchen while Danny was still a bit stunned by the door and he sighed tiredly. Might as well see where this would lead. 

Dani was already making a new pot of coffee and chatting away, making the seated Valerie smile and watch her girlfriend with open affection. 

Danny took the liberty to sit and took the liberty to get a good look at this woman, while she wasn’t looking. 

Danny knew he might have gone a bit far by calling her middle age, as Valerie couldn’t possible be a day over 35. She seemed to like Dani, even love her and Danny guessed that was all you could hope for in a case like this. 

She didn’t seem to like him though and Danny had the suspicion it was on one hand the part of him being a half-ghost and on the other hand, the idea pf having him living with Dani. 

Danny knew he was just being overprotective and recalled how he had acted hostile towards Dean Thornwood, back when Jazz had just started seeing him. 

He knew he had to be better than that, but there was still something about Gray that made him tense and remain sceptic. It was something about her attitude…or maybe her voice? 

He didn’t know, all he knew was that he had to be careful around her. 

“Don’t you know it’s rude to stare?” Valerie suddenly said with an arrogant expression, “I know ghosts doesn’t have any humanlike manners, but aren’t you supposed to be just a tiny bit human?” 

Danny noticed that Dani was still busy making coffee and hadn’t heard a thing. 

He turned back to the CEO with a low voice, “listen, I don’t care if your like ghosts or not, I don’t care if you hate me for being a halfa or anything petty like that – Dani is my grandniece, my family and if you hurt her in any way, I’m going to haunt you soooo hard, you’ll be begging for the sweet relief of death.” 

She narrowed her eyes, “oh yeah? But you know what, half-ghost? I’m not only gonna date your grandniece – I’m gonna _marry_ her and if you know what’s best for you, you better stay out of it.” 

“Oh I will,” he warned, “I’m even going to give my blessing if you treat her right and respect her with all your love and care.” 

Valerie opened her mouth to serve him a comeback, but then turned to a confused stare, “wait what? So your not against it?” 

“Why would I be against it?” 

“Because you’re a straight white male from the Victorian patriotically era?” 

“Excuse me? I’m gay, most of the time greenish and was born in the Edwardian and revolutionary era – how dare you stereotype me?” 

Valerie just stared and narrowed her eyes in confusion, “so you’re saying your supportive of us?” 

“You're damn right,” Danny replied terminated and took a bite of one of her brought pastries. 

“Right about what?” Dani asked curiously and both Danny and Valerie hurried to sit straight again and act like nothing. 

“The red huntress being the best hero of Amity,” Valerie replied lightly, “I was just telling Danny here that Amity is a dangerous place for amateur heroes.” 

Danny tried kicking her under the table, but she seemed to have expected that and kicked him in return. 

Danny kept a straight face and cleared his throat as Dani had taken a seat next to Valerie. 

“Okay, so I guess this is how it’s going to go from here and I’ll like to put some things on the table – first of all, my secret can’t get out, understand?” 

“You think I would ruin my girlfriend’s family like that?” Valerie asked him with a raised eye brow and snorted, “I’ll admit that I had my doubts about you at first. You just barged into Amity and took it as your territory – Amity Park, the most ghost hating place on the planet.” 

“Hey,” Danny warned, “I only took it to keep Dani here safe and it would be stupid living here without making it my territory. This place has turned a lot safer after I arrived.” 

“People still has their doubts,” Valerie replied pointed and received a stern glance from Dani. 

Valerie sighed and returned to a more professional expression, “but I suppose I’ve been proven wrong. You might have taken the city as your territory, but unlike other ghosts, you don’t haunt the people in it. You’re clearly strong enough to do as you please, but uses your powers to do hero work, where you could just take control of Amity. All that and you saved my life when you could just have led me crash and be rid of me.” 

Danny blinked in confusion, but then understood, “you’re the red huntress.” 

“Guess you where halfway right about me working for Axion Lab,” she scoffed and folded her hands, “Dani says I can trust you and I seriously doubted that, but now…” 

She took a second to open her matching yellow purse and placed a business card on the on the table, before pushing it over to him, “I like to offer you a proposition.” 

Dani nodded encouragingly to him and Danny picked it up after some hesitation. 

“You’re offering me a job?” he asked slowly and turned the card in his hand, “as what exactly?” 

“I could use you on my team,” Valerie offered calmly and learned forward with collected fingers, “you could help me and my research team improve our ghost research and weapons systems. I’ll like to offer you a job as my partner in the safekeeping of Amity Park.” 

“Really?” was all Danny could say and she nodded. 

“I will keep your identity safe, of course and you will be working with me alone. I would like to work with you rather than fight you and start making progress. You will be payed to.” 

Danny was a bit conflicted about the offer, but as he couldn’t exactly find any other reasons to thank no – other than her being a douche to him these past months. Plus, she was Dani’s secret girlfriend – he should probably be supportive. 

Yes, a good granduncle would do that. A payed granduncle even more so… 

“And I get the weekends free?” he asked and she watched him for a second to see if he was joking or not. 

“We can arrange that, sure –” 

“I’ve taken a part job at an arcade, so work hours will have to be before 12:00 and after 23:00.” 

“We can discuss that…” 

“Free dental and payed vacation?” 

“If you feel the need for that, then sure –” 

“How about a hoverboard?” 

“Now you’re just testing me – you can fly!” she scowled and Danny just grinned. 

This was even better than harassing her as the red huntress – now she couldn’t shoot at him because of Dani. He was _soooo_ gonna take advantage of this. 

“I know – but that board is so cool. Can I at least get a suit?” he asked as he transformed into Phantom, and picked at his old ragged battle suit, “this one is falling apart.” 

Valerie overcame her little shock of seeing him transform and tilted her head and took measure with her eyes, clearly finding his old suit a disgrace to her presence, “I’ll get a hazmat suit made for you, any wished for the design now that I’m in the mood for this?” 

Danny ignored her warning tone and listed his demands on his fingers, “I want a DP logo on the chest and it got to be black with white lines – and white boots and gloves, plus a cool belt. The cloaks gotta stay though. I want the full superhero comic look.” 

Dani wrote it down on a napkin and stuffed in into her girlfriend’s purse for later, while Valerie just rolled her eyes at him, “fine, does that mean we have a deal then?” 

Danny grinned and lifted his hand for a handshake, “deal – Dani’s going to need a suit to by the way. Make it match yours.” 

Dani widened her eyes a bit by that, while Valerie frowned. 

“Really?” Dani asked hopeful and turned to her girlfriend, “please say yes!” 

“No!” Valerie replied sternly, not open for discussion. 

“Oh c’me on, I can fight!” Dani whined, but Valerie didn’t relent. 

“No, I’m not letting you risk your life like that out there – I might have trained you to defend yourself and use a gun, but there no way –” 

“Pretty please,” both he and Dani pleaded and Valerie was taken back a bit by the combined power of two set of blue puppy eyes. 

“Okay, okay, jeez,” she gave in, “Jesus Christ, what’s with you two? Fine, but you have to finish the full last level of ecto-weapon use then and train karate with me more than two times a week, Dani.” 

“Promise,” Dani replied and shone happily, “we should totally have a team name of something.” 

Danny already knew the answer to that, “Team Phantom vol. 2.” 

Valerie sent him a glare that promised a near coming death in his future is he didn’t reconsider that this instant, “over my _dead_ body.”

 

 _Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA_

“And then I killed her,” Danny whispered darkly and made Nichols lose his jaw. 

“Say what!?” 

Danny broke into laughter, “I was joking, just joking – but we ended up calling ourselves ‘Team Phantom’ anyway. It was a vote of three and since we couldn’t all be dressed in red, the ‘Red Hunters’ lost to ‘Team Phantom’ with two votes against one.” 

Nichols reached for a new cigarette in thought and found that he had smoked them all and grunted, “looks like you got your old team back together.” 

Danny smiled quietly at that, “they could never replace Tucker and Sam, but they made a very fine team anyway. It reminded me of the old days and in other ways it didn’t. We saved the town from two great disasters called Nucturn and Vortex. The first was a ghost that feed on dreams, put the entire city into a coma to fuel on them. The second ghost could control the weather and almost wiped Amity Park from the map with tornadoes and earthquakes. It was wild, dude.” 

The cop nodded, believed it, “and the papers finally got your name right?” 

“About that…” 

Nichols didn’t feel like asking after hearing that tone, but did it anyway, “what happened?” 

“Well, turns out Vlad _was_ looking for me. The name ‘Inviso-bill’ had made him look past Amity Park while searching, but now that the papers had gotten ‘Phantom’ back on the frontpages…” 

“He found you.” 

“He found me and I guess he always will. That’s just who he is.”

 

 _Year 1986, the air, Minesota, USA_

_**“He found me and I guess he always will. That’s just who he is.”** _

 

Vlad Masters the II looked out the window with an unreadable expression. 

Had the man been less picky about his ways of traveling and taken a passenger plain instead of his private yet, a person seated next to him could have taken a look at the man and possible interpreted a couple of assumptions from this particular expression on his face. 

He was a business man debating on an important deal. 

He was a Movistar rehearsing his scripts in his head. 

He was a model traveling for a photoshoot and keeping his face unmoving for the sake of avoiding wrinkles. 

He was a well-dressed serial killer, recalling all his past dark deeds. 

He was a sports fan going to see this season’s Super Bowl 22 from the front seat – though this could have been based on the spots magazine in his hand and not his face as such. 

None of these descriptions matched the man or this particular expression, although some of them had some truth to them, when it came to understand the man. 

Vlad was many things and still earning new titles as the years went by, but the unknown expression on his face would always be the same when he traveled for a certain goal. 

The same goal he had headed for back in 1927, 1944 and now finally 1986. 

_Daniel._

Vlad sighed and broke eye contact with the reflection in the window pane. The white feline settled next to his seat yawned and he stroke the luxurious fur in thought. 

“It’s been forty-two years,” he muttered to himself and Maddie purred as she rubbed her head into his black suit, “I know, Maddie, time heal all wounds, but I’m afraid these ones wont.” 

The feline blinked curiously at him and Vlad nodded as if she had said something incredible insightful, “that’s a valid observation. Yes, I rule at life and I rule the humans around me – but that’s not enough!” 

She remained in her seat as he rose from his to pace and she licked her pawn peacefully, as he began to stroll around with a troubled expression, “just how am I going to convince him to join me this time? I’ve already tried to train him and used his loved ones as motivation, but he has a habit of leaving them to eve out the game, hmmm…” 

“Miauv.” 

“Yes, yes, my charm has proven to have its effect on him and he was clearly to trouble in Parish to clearly see me, but he’s an old soul now and far beyond adulthood. He’s not a boy anymore, even more than a middle-aged man. Just as myself, the world and simple emotions won’t affect him anymore, the magic of youth and childhood gone. As immortals, we’re bound to see the glamor of the world writher before us, all its magic dull with age and all wonders seem like just another loop in the same old circle of human existence.” 

Vlad sighed and opened a bottle of wine, the sweet smell of deathblossom greeting him like an old friend and somewhat solution to his heartache. 

Vlad would never admit it – not even to his cat, but this trip to Amity Park scared him. 

Not because it was one of America’s most haunted towns or because this trip possible would cost him a deal he had used weeks to get his grasp on back in Wisconsin, but because of what he might find when he landed. 

Or someone. 

The image of Daniel was clear as crystal in his head, but when he thought of him, it would always be the young carefree image of the boy’s early twenties that returned to him. 

The time around his teens to mid twenty was the ones Vlad had been most fond of and it always brought a lump to his throat to know that the Daniel he recalled had vanished into the cruel vortex of time. 

Last time he had seen his beloved soulmate, Daniel had been a wrecked shell of his former self and had fled in terror of his own dark deeds. 

Skulker had assured him from his short meeting with the younger halfa in Walker’s prison, that Daniel had seemed somewhat like himself. Just older, more powerful than ever and with a long beard… 

The last part confused Vlad a bit, he couldn’t for his life imagine Daniel with a big black beard or more facial hair than a goatee. 

Skulker had thought Daniel had looked like a ghost yeti and it made Vlad wondering if that had been the hiding spot of the young man for all those years before the ghost prison. 

He guessed it wasn’t important right now and forced himself to focus on the present – the present Daniel he was going to meet in a few hours when the jet landed in Amity. 

The anxiety rummage like a distressed animal in a cage and Vlad rubbed his temple. 

Would Daniel be angry to see him again? Vlad almost hoped for it. An angry Daniel would be to prefer over an indifferent Daniel. 

Vlad wasn’t sure if he could take the emotional damage of seeing that empty shell he had meet in the Sing Sing prison or the bloodthirsty reaper from the circus one more time. 

Couldn’t bear to face the result of his own doing again. 

Vlad ran a hand through his hair and then realized his mistake and hurried to the bathroom to redo his look. He had to look perfect when he found Daniel. Had to put up a spotless appearance for the younger halfa to recognize and respect. 

Despite the picture-perfect image that stared back at him from the mirror, Vlad couldn’t help but notice the uncertainty in his own eyes. 

The dark color under his eyes from sleepless nights. The shaking of his hands. 

Vlad inhaled sharply and asked himself if he should have allowed his silver hair to grow long again or keep the bangs he was sporting now. He didn’t know and simply returned to the wine for another glass. 

Just to get his nerves to stop shaking and nothing more. He told himself that the desire for the calming effect of the bloodblossoms was therapeutic and not at all pathetic. 

“We’re both adults, we can work out our relationship as such,” he assured himself and felt a bit better. 

Yes, Daniel was an old man by now, old enough to meet him head on and hear him out. They could talk on friendly terms and be reasonable. 

It would be like the reunion of two old acquaintances. 

Two old men meeting again for a talk, nothing unusual or strange about that…just the fact they would both be young looking and trying to function as such in a time to strange for them to understand or function in. 

Was Daniel happy? Did he feel old in this new world? Was he ever thinking of him? 

Vlad didn’t know. 

His phone suddenly buzzed and Vlad took it with a scowl, “what?” 

_“I’m sorry to disturb you, sir,”_ his secretary said with a hint of fear in her voice, _“I know you didn’t wanted me to call, but Mr. Lee has been ringing on all the lines. He’s very persistent about the deal, sir._ ” 

Vlad rubbed his temple, couldn’t care about the Shanghai deal right now, “you’re perfectly right, Donna. I didn’t want any calls. Please let it stay that way.” 

He put down the phone and ended the call before she could reply and emptied the bottle. He was listened with half an ear, as his ghostly pilot advised him to take a seat and put on his seatbelt for the landing. 

Vlad returned to his seat with troubled thoughts and Maddie placed her head in his lap as the jet graced the ground that was the home of a Daniel J. Fenton. 

An 86-year-old man pretending to be his own grandnephew, which seemed somewhat fitting taking into account that Vlad was pretending to be his own grandson. 

How avant-garde of them. 

Vlad’s somewhat humored thoughts was interrupted as the door to the private jet opened and Vlad led Maddie with him, as the pilot grabbed his luggage and had it repacked into the limo waiting for them and began to drive his boss into the center of the city. 

Vlad watched the buildings rush by outside the toned windows and petted the feline quietly. As he expected, it was a backwater town and clearly a ghost infested one of the kind. 

A series of burned holes in one of the billboard announcing for the upcoming mayor election, clearly testified to a past fight with ecto-blasts and Vlad could already see Daniel flying around and playing hero before his inner eye. 

Saving a city that wasn’t loyal or deserved his kindness…that is if Daniel still cared about all that. The newspapers said so, but what did they know? Danny Phantom never gave interviews or defended himself when the papers turned against him. 

He simply did his heroic duty and vanished again to walk among the citizens unseen and unappreciated. 

Did Daniel do it out of routine or old sense of duty? Did it bring him joy? 

The unease returned and Vlad forced it down. He had to find Daniel. Had to know. 

He had already seen the picture of his new home and didn’t pay much attention to the mansion or the surroundings, as his ghost maid, Mrs. Daisy and the estate agent welcomed him to his new home and showed him around briefly. 

It might be Amity Park's Ultra Posh Polter Heights neighborhood, but it was clearly not on the level with the old West Egg, or as grand as his castle back in Wisconsin. But it would do for now, he supposed and signed the papers to get the agent out of his new home. 

He entrusted his luggage and Maddie to his old ghost housekeeper and decided it was time to begin his search.

   
   
 

The ten duplicates took each a part of the city to cover and Vlad himself began at the most likely of places. 

Daniel’s house. 

It had been easy to look up the address after learning about Daniel’s identity as his own grandnephew. The name ‘Daniel Fenton’ had really been his first option to look up, knowing that like himself, Daniel wouldn’t keep from using his own name again. 

It had interested Vlad to find that a ‘Miss. Danielle Thornwood’ had lived in the house until just a year ago before she moved in with her fiancé. 

Likewise, you didn’t have to be a genius to figure that this was the last home of a Jasmine Thornwood, former known as Fenton as well. 

One of his duplicate had set course for the cemetery to pay his last respect and place a grand bouquet of red roses on the grave, but the real Vlad couldn’t waste time on the dead and focused on the half-dead instead. 

He could already tell that Daniel wasn’t home, but walked up to the door anyway. He spotted the ghost detector and traps instantly and sidestepped a leghold trap disguised as a garden gnome. 

A simple ghost shield hung over the house and he passed through the ghost-shield easily in his human-form. Couldn’t help from smiling. 

It pleased him to know that Daniel hadn’t set up a shield to keep out humans – and in that process halfas – and the little subtle action told Vlad more than he needed. 

Daniel had no intentions of hiding from him. 

He remained human as he phased inside and looked around. A portrait of Jasmine Thornwood greeted him from the end wall and he hung his coat by the door out of respect for the place. 

It was a small house, but charming with its warm floorboard and light wallpaper. Old pictures of the Thornwood family graced the walls and most of the furniture seemed antic, clearly not ones Daniel had bought himself. 

Vlad walked into the kitchen and turned off the buzzing TV to save the younger halfa some money on his electrical bill. Daniel seemed to have left the house in a rush, based on the TV and the leftover breakfast still lingering on the table. 

A used ashtray with a single stubbed cigarette in it stood on the table and Vlad frowned. Daniel was smoking now? 

He shook his head and left the tight room to investigate the rest of the house. He found the living room and sat down on the large white couch for a second. 

A selection of VHS-tapes rested on the low coffee table in front of him and he recognized the entire _Star Wars_ trilogy along with _Mad Max_ , _E.T_ , _The Thing_ and something as ironic as _Ghostbusters_. 

All the walls in the room seemed covered with shelves and books share an equal space with movies. Vlad ran his fingers across the titles as he inspected the shelves and felt old nostalgia. 

Old classics like _Dracula_ and _Frankenstein_ , stood side by side with cheap paperbacks of Oscar Wilder and Allen Edgar Poe works. 

Vlad smiled by the sight of _Journey To The Center Of The Earth_ and _The War Of the Worlds_. An entire shelf was dedicated alone to the entire collection of _Sherlock Holmes_ and other look alike crime fiction. 

Another shelf held books of Tolkien and Lewis. Vlad remembered most of these as books that used to fill Daniel’s room back at the castle – but what he didn’t recall was this huge number of scientific theses on space. 

They looked well used and he picked one of them out in curiosity. The book had more than one piece of paper pressed in between the pages and Vlad recognized Daniel’s tight and almost girly handwriting. 

The numbers and complicated equations didn’t make any sense to him at first, until he caught sight of the telescope by the window. Vlad flipped the pages and hummed surprised. 

Daniel was following the movements of the planets. 

Apparently, Daniel was trying to predict the activity of the sky and if his notes was correct, the moon would be the closets it had ever been this century by 1990 and have two full moons in December. 

Vlad continued to read and couldn’t help but admire Daniel. The ice-cored halfa had always struggled with the mathematics, but these equations were incredible and something Vlad wouldn’t even dream of trying to compete with. 

And he had studied higher physics. 

Had Daniel always had such interest in space and astronomy or had it come with the years? Vlad wanted to know. He wanted to know all that was new about Daniel. 

He returned the book to its rightful place and sat down on the couch again. Picked up the movies on the coffee table and tried deciphering why Daniel would waste his time on such nonsense when he clearly showed a more mature interest in the science field. 

The books told him Daniel had grown up, but the movies told another story. Vlad sighed as he looked around, tried to figure out what person this made his Daniel. 

He didn’t settle on a satisfying answer and guessed he would have to go to the second floor to become more insightful on the person inhabiting this place. 

He reached the second floor to find it decorated like the rest of the house and found three doors down the hall. The bedroom on his left turned out to be a guest room and the next door a bathroom, meaning Daniel’s bedroom would be the last one of the right. 

Vlad had come to know a couple of bedrooms inhabited by the younger halfa during the years and remember them all as a bit messy, but otherwise very telling when it came to what mood his badger was in. 

The old room Daniel had owned in the castle of Yorkshire had been tidy, but empty most of the time of Danny’s youth, as he had spent most of his childhood in boarding school. 

The room had functioned as a storage for Daniel’s cloths and gifts after he had moved into Vlad’s bedroom, leave that room very impersonal, except for his books. 

The little apartment of New York City had been different. It had clearly been the cave of a man growing into adulthood and testified to a life of detective work with notes on the walls and tools for ecto-gadgets on the table. 

No time for books or play, only hard work and the chaotic life as a hero. 

But what Vlad found on the other side of this door was neither a storage room or a workplace. 

Blue was the first thing that caught the eye and then the many posters on the walls. 

Several images of spaceships, pictures of constellation, rock bands and posters from NASA, filled the blue walls like there was no tomorrow and Vlad blinked surprised by the luminescent plastic stars on the ceiling. 

Models of spaceships, many handmade, some brought, and several instruments littered around the corners and surfaces. A T-shirt with a band called _‘Queen’_ , rested on the floor along with other pieces of laundry. 

If he didn’t know any better, he would say this was the bedroom of a teenage boy and not an immortal halfa in his eighties. 

Vlad sat down on the large bed in the middle of the room to try and sort this mystery out and suddenly caught the scent of the sheets. 

Daniel’s scent. 

He sighed before he allowed himself to fall back on the bed and pressed the pillow to his face with a deep inhale – how he had missed that scent. 

Old memories and glimpse of well-known scenarios between sheets, returned to him and he longed for the chance to reexperience them once again. 

An antic clock on one of the shelves chimed quietly and he looked up to find Jasmine’s old teddy bear on the top shelf above him. 

A sweet gesture to remember his older sister by, Vlad guessed and sat up. The connecting to his duplicates told him that one had been attacked and he took control of it to see through the Plasmius duplicate’s eyes down in the lower town. 

“Had enough?” a woman in a red battle suit asked cocky and charged an ecto-blaster for another round. 

Plasmius just smiled by the woman’s foolishness. Did she really believe a silly gun like that could harm him? 

A second ghost hunter, much smaller and her red uniform consisted a matching shirt-and-pants set that reveals her midriff instead of a full suit, flew up to her superior on a matching hoverboard with a bazooka on her shoulder. 

“Maybe we should call, Danny. This guy is clearly a high-level ghost, Val.” 

That peaked Vlad’s attention and Plasmius flew closer to the ghost huntresses, “pardon for the intrusion, but I couldn’t help but overhear you two mention a ‘Danny’ – you couldn’t possibly be talking about ‘Danny Phantom’, now could you?” 

“What’s it to you?” the leader scowled and Vlad smirked. 

“Just curiosity, now, if you could point me in his direction –” 

The ecto-blast was anticipated, and Vlad turned invisible and suppressed his core with a grin. The two huntresses flew haphazardly to try and find him or pick up his signature with their instruments, but when nothing showed, they landed on a building to reschedule. 

“He’s new,” the leader commented and opened her helmet to reveal the face of a Miss. Valerie Gray. 

Vlad already knew all about her, having kept track on the world’s leading ghost weapon manufacturers and read up on her company movements before going to Amity Park. But none of the papers could have prepared him for this little detail. 

_Well, what do you know?_

The second surprise hit him as the smaller huntress opened her helmet as well. Vlad’s fanged smile only widened by the sight of Daniel’s female image and he could already tell he was gazing upon Danielle Thornwood, before her fiancé could address her by name. 

“It’s his night off, Dani. We promised to let him work on Fridays at the arcade.” 

“I know, but this could be a new threat to Amity. We haven’t seen that much ecto-energy since Vortex and this guy hadn’t even shown us his obsession yet.” 

Miss Gray sighed and turned her blaster over in her hand, “well, he seemed to know Danny, or at least his reputation. If we’re lucky, Danny already knows this specter’s weaknesses and can take him down easily – and if not, I suggest we meet up at his place tomorrow morning and make a profile.” 

“I can work with that,” Danielle replied carefree and sat down beside her on the board, “and speaking of work – have you been working out or something?” 

Mrs. Gray smiled coyly and pulled the smaller woman in for a kiss. 

Vlad didn’t need to stay around to know where this was heading and ordered all his duplicates to search for an arcade. 

He returned to his own body and send the spaceship models and blue sheets one last look before he left the house and teleported to join the search party.


	41. Danny and Vlad want to live in the present, but the past is a persisting thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> A Christmas morning in 1917  
>  _Vlad frowned a bit, but took the kitten nevertheless. Danny bit his lip by the sight._  
>  _“It’s…a very sweet gift, Daniel, but I’m afraid –”_  
>  _Danny hurried to place a finger over his lips, “shhh, I know it’s probably beneath your pride or something, but I just saw this little thing and thought of you on the spot. Her name is Maddie.”_  
>  _Vlad sent the tipsy adolescent a wry smile and set the box aside, “I guess I can allow her to stay.”_  
>  _Danny sighed in relief and continued to pet the little white ball of lush hair, you’re going to adore her. She kissed me when I brought her."_  
>  _“Well, yes, its tradition to greet people with a kiss in Russian to,” Vlad began and made a face when Danny lifted the kitten to his face._  
>  _“Alright, kiss her, Mr. Russia. Welcome her to the family!”_  
>  _“Daniel, no.”_  
>  _“Danny, yes,” The boy replied grinning and pressed the kitten snout to Vlad’s face. Danny lost it at the sight of the man’s utter umbrage face and the man was ready to punish the deathblossom drinking adolescent –_  
>  _But then Danny kissed him to._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vlad once placed a ransome on Danny  
>  _One of the ghosts from the neighbor table turned to look openly at Danny with a dark attitude and the halfa poked the ghost next to him with a nod._  
>  _"Got any idea what that guy's problem is?"_  
>  _The ghost snickered, "oh him? He's probably after the bounty on your head. 60.0000 gold pieces for the one that can deliver you alive and unharmed."_  
>  _The bounty hunter apparently got tired of staring and moved up to Danny with the rest of the tables watching._  
>  _"So you’re the ghost-man, huh?" the whitehaired ghost asked and smirked behind the little black glasses. Danny guessed the guy had been a scientist or something before his death, based on the lab coat, crazy hairstyle and comical Austrian accent._
> 
> But Vlad found Danny first - or at least his bedroom  
>  _Blue was the first thing that caught the eye and then the many posters on the walls. Several images of spaceships, pictures of constellation, rock bands and posters from NASA, filled the blue walls like there was no tomorrow and Vlad blinked surprised by the luminescent plastic stars on the ceiling._  
>  _If he didn’t know any better, he would say this was the bedroom of a teenage boy and not an immortal halfa in his eighties. Vlad sat down on the large bed in the middle of the room to try and sort this mystery out and suddenly caught the scent of the sheets._  
>  _Daniel’s scent._  
>  _He sighed before he allowed himself to fall back on the bed and pressed the pillow to his face with a deep inhale – how he had missed that scent._  
>  _The connecting to his duplicates told him that one had been attacked and he took control of it to see through the Plasmius duplicate’s eyes down in the lower town._  
>  _“Had enough?” a woman in a red battle suit asked cocky and charged an ecto-blaster for another round. Plasmius just smiled by the woman’s foolishness. A second ghost hunter, much smaller and her red uniform consisted a matching shirt-and-pants set that reveals her midriff instead of a full suit, flew up to her superior on a matching hoverboard with a bazooka on her shoulder._  
>  _“Maybe we should call, Danny. This guy is clearly a high-level ghost, Val.”_  
>  _That peaked Vlad’s attention and Plasmius flew closer to the ghost huntresses, “pardon for the intrusion, but I couldn’t help but overhear you two mention a ‘Danny’ – you couldn’t possibly be talking about ‘Danny Phantom’, now could you?”_  
>  _“What’s it to you?” the leader scowled and Vlad smirked._  
>  _“Just curiosity, now, if you could point me in his direction –”_  
>  _The ecto-blast was anticipated, and Vlad turned invisible and suppressed his core with a grin. The two huntresses flew haphazardly to try and find him or pick up his signature with their instruments, but when nothing showed, they landed on a building to reschedule._  
>  _“He’s new,” the leader commented and opened her helmet to reveal the face of a Miss. Valerie Gray. Vlad already knew all about her, having kept track on the world’s leading ghost weapon manufacturers and read up on her company movements before going to Amity Park._  
>  _But none of the papers could have prepared him for this little detail._  
>  _The second surprise hit him as the smaller huntress opened her helmet as well. Vlad’s fanged smile only widened by the sight of Daniel’s female image and he could already tell he was gazing upon Danielle Thornwood, before her fiancé could address her by name._  
>  _“It’s his night off, Dani. We promised to let him work on Fridays at the arcade.”_  
>  _Vlad didn’t need to stay around any more than that and ordered all his duplicates to search for an arcade. He returned to his own body and send the spaceship models and blue sheets one last look before he left the house and teleported to join the search party._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey people and welcome back from holidays and your fears for the ominous 2018  
> can't wait to se how fucked this years is going to be (kill me)  
> hope you're all well and ready for some Vlad and Danny action - those two are going to take up a lot of chapters together now!  
> Also, in this chapter Danny will be singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TazHNpt6OTo  
> and if you don't remember from some of the last chapter notes - Danny and Vlad has changed their ghostly appearance to something like this: http://phanamu.tumblr.com/post/155771548927/bluebarely-cries-i-finally-got-my-redesigns-up
> 
> again, a simply stunning artpiece from the lovely artists "bluebarely"  
> Hope you enjoy and leave a coment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 1986, Jolly-Joes Arcade, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA._

He waited till nightfall. 

Finding the arcade had taken longer time than first estimated, as entertaining halls as these had gotten incredible popular during these few years and popped up like fungus in the bigger cities. Amity Park was no different. 

Vlad had been close give up and to call all his duplicates back, in order to send them out to working offices instead. Even if he didn’t know the exact location of Daniel’s work facility, he could still try look up Daniel’s employment information instead. 

He had already made ready to execute his plan B, when one of the duplicates had passed an arcade and recognized a voice. Vlad had teleported immediately and watched invisible from the sidewalk. 

A voice reached through the glass quietly. 

Vlad had heard Daniel sing many times before, although more frequently in the past then later. 

The first time had been shortly after Madeline and her children had moved into the castle in Yorkshire. Daniel had been polite at first, but a quiet child. His teen rebellion still a year or two waiting in the future. 

The boy had been enlisted in the choir in the local church for the summer until he was to go to boarding school and Vlad had decided to pick him up at the church, as he was coming that way by car anyway. 

And if he had to be honest, he had been a little curious. 

Daniel hadn’t seemed like an artistic child in his eye and he had expected to hear a mediocre voice at best when he walked into the church, but instead he had been surprised to hear a voice resembling that of an angel. 

Daniel had been in the midst of practicing a solo with the priest and Vlad had taken a seat in the back without a word in secret. Just listened. 

Daniel had been so shy at that time, just greeted him with a nod when Vlad had walked up to them. The small boy had blushed when Vlad had talked with the priest and the old man had praised Daniel for his voice. 

Vlad had made sure Daniel had been assigned piano lessons after that and in the years after, he had made the boy entertain at all dinner parties in order for the young man to show his talent in the company of people of importance. 

Daniel had clearly despised it, but Vlad hadn’t cared at that time. 

After he had revealed his ghost half to Daniel and their relationship had turned to the better, the adolescents had played for him almost every single night. 

They had even made it a thing to play together – Daniel with his voice on the piano and Vlad with his violin. Vlad had treasured those nights, something that had ended after he had taken Daniel as his lover. 

The young halfa had refused to play for him ever since. 

No words or threats had been able to change that and Vlad had been forced to listen to Daniel in secret, when the adolescents once in a while would take a seat behind the piano and play a single song. 

Those times had been rare and the songs flowing from his little badger always those of hurt or regret. 

Vlad hadn’t allowed himself to linger too much on it, told himself that Daniel would come around and learn to be happy again. 

Daniel had stopped completely after his voice had changed during puberty and Vlad had accepted that his little badger had grown out of his phase of singing. 

That was life after all, we grew out of innocence like that. 

But then he had heard him again in New York. Vlad could still remember watching from the table at _Vice End_ , as Daniel and the young Miss. McLain had taken the scene. 

Daniel had looked as if he had been forced unto the scene and clearly hated it at first, but then the halfa had played the first notes and something had changed. 

Like a veil, something had lifted from Daniel’s demeanor and he had melted into the music and opened his mouth. 

The voice had been nothing like the innocent angel chime that had once filled cathedrals, but the dark baritone had crept under Vlad’s skin nevertheless. Filled him with something not quite as innocent. 

The song had clearly been noted on him, Daniel’s way to rebel and tell him his silly opinion as always, but where Vlad just had scoffed back then, the memory now filled him with guilt. 

_You've got a changeable nature. You're always changing your mind. There's a longing in your eye. That is hard to satisfy. You're unhappy most of the time!_

Vlad stared into the arcade. He had moved across the street to take a seat at one of the tables by the restaurant opposite the arcade and was now waiting with an empty plate and his second glass of Pinot Grigio. 

Watching the arcade over the tip of his fake glasses. 

He had gotten the idea of wearing a pair after Daniel’s disguise in New York and found that he liked the effect it had on his face along with the bangs. Made him look like a new person. 

Daniel had changed his appearance as well. 

The long black hair had been quite the shock to Vlad, but he supposed it was better than the beard Skulker had mentioned and now that he had observed the halfa for a couple of hours, he had to admit there was something fascinating about the new hairstyle. 

Daniel still hadn’t discovered him and it both pleased and annoyed Vlad. He didn’t want to be discovered just yet before he was sure he had Daniel alone, but he hadn’t gotten the chance to see Daniel’s face clearly either. 

Daniel was in constant movement behind the dark glass. Walking between the teens and children, helping them with jammed machines, handing out prizes in exchange for tickets, playing with the kids and chatting with the other worker at the desk. 

The dark man was clearly into Daniel and it annoyed Vlad to no end. Daniel seemed to be aware and made a joke of it, something that pleased Vlad. According to his information, Daniel was living alone and single…but you never knew. 

At least he knew for certain that Daniel slept alone, having seen his bedroom and haven’t found any alien article of cloths or items there. Just Daniel and his scent. 

But that didn’t keep Vlad from being jealous. The old possessiveness only growing when a group of young teenage girls with pink skirts and those silly scrunchie hairdos clearly used the karaoke machine as a cover for flirtation. 

Daniel just grinned at them and sung a song with each of them. He had been around that machine a lot and Vlad wondered if Daniel just liked it in particular, or it was part of his job to make the children use their coins on it. 

A part of him feared that this carefree display was just for show, was just part of his job. Vlad hadn’t seen Daniel this… _young_ in a long time and a part of him was scared to go closer and risk breaking the illusion. 

“Move wine, sir?” the waiter asked, but Vlad had already placed twice the payment for the bill on the table and rose from his seat. 

The arcade was closing. 

“No, it is time,” he just said and left the confused waiter, who’s puzzled expression soon turned to that of glee when he saw the large tip. 

The sound of music only grew as Vlad crossed the street and Vlad stopped on the curb when the arcade’s second worker walked through the door with his jacket in hand and took of his nametag. 

Vlad acted as nothing and allowed the young man to pass him before he redirected his eyes to the windows. Daniel was standing with his back to him and seemed busy turning of the last of the machines, but then stopped in front of the karaoke machine. 

He then placed a coin in the slot and took one of the microphones and began to sing. Vlad kept his ghost signature suppressed and opened the door and closed it silently behind him. Daniel hadn’t heard him, focused on singing.

 

_“I was tired of my lady, we'd been together too long_  
_Like a worn-out recording of a favorite song_  
_So while she lay there sleepin', I read the paper in bed_  
_And in the personal columns there was this letter I read!”_

  

_“'If you like Piña Coladas, getting caught in the rain_  
_If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain_  
_If you like making love at midnight in the dunes on the cape_  
_I'm the love that you've looked for write to me and escape'”_

 

Danny swayed his hips to the music and Vlad stopped a few feet from him. 

Mesmerized by the scandalous moves and had to cover his blushing face with a hand. Having only seen Daniel dance waltz and at occasions tango with him, this sight was certainly something new. 

Daniel was clearly lost in his own performance and sang with a smile on his lips. The long hair made him seem more effeminate and reminded Vlad of his younger years before the fall of the castle. 

Or maybe the time of New York…he couldn’t tell anymore. Time seemed to lose it value to him as it went.

 

_“I didn't think about my lady, I know that sounds kinda mean_  
_But me and my old lady had fallen into the same old dull routine_  
_So I wrote to the paper, took out a personal ad_  
_And though I'm nobody's poet, I thought it wasn't half bad._ ” 

  

_"Yes, I like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain_  
_I'm not much into health food, I am into champagne_  
_I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon and cut through all this red tape_  
_At a bar called O'Malleys where we'll plan our escape!"_

 

Vlad placed his coat by the empty desk and placed his hands in his pocked, tilted his head and couldn’t help from smile at the show Daniel was unknowingly putting on for him. 

The old broken heart of his didn’t heal, but he felt how the slumbering love for the younger halfa bloomed once again and hope filled his chest.  


This wasn’t an old soul dancing before his eyes. Daniel hadn’t lost his youth to time or scares. He was as the day Vlad had first kissed him that long-lost Christmas morning. The sweet youth scented with deathblossom. 

The carefree boy that had given him his first kiss with a drunk laughter.

 

_“So I waited with high hopes and she walked in the place_  
_I knew her smile in an instant, I knew the curve of her face_  
_It was my own lovely lady and she said, "Oh, it's you?"_  
_Then we laughed for a moment and I said, "I never knew."_

  

_"That you liked Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain_  
_And the feel of the ocean and the taste of champagne_  
_If you like making love at midnight in the dunes on the cape_  
_You're the lady I've looked for, come with me and escape."_

  

_“If you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain_  
_If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain_  
_If you like making love at midnight in the dunes on the cape_  
_I'm the love that you've looked for, write to me and escape.”_

 

The music toned out and Vlad watched as Daniel returned the mic to the holder. His voice suddenly cutting clean though the silence. 

“Take a picture, it will last longer.” 

Vlad was a bit flurried by the suddenly addressing of him and he lost his breath as the younger halfa finally turned around to face him. Without facial hair and with the long black tresses framing his face, Daniel had returned to his early twenties. 

Vlad knew the new hairstyle couldn’t have done it alone, but Daniel had still turned back time somehow and the blue eyes shone with open mischievousness. 

Daniel was smiling at him. _Him_. 

Vlad now knew all his worried had been for nothing. He had found what he could only had hoped to find in his wildest dreams. 

He had found his little badger. 

Vlad cleared his throat to compensate from the surprise of being taking red-handed in starring, “it’s good to see you again, Daniel. Long time since.” 

Daniel just send him a pitiful smile and mocked him good hearted, “oh, c’me on, you can do it better than that, you never just greet me like that. Where’s the drama, Vlad? The _‘oh Daniel, you broke my heart in Paris, the city of love. I have come to reclaim you, my love, bleh-bleh-bleh’._ ” 

Vlad wasn’t late to catch the Dracula accent and scowled at Daniel’s dramatical parody of him, “I don’t say ‘bleh-bleh-bleh’.” 

“Could have fooled me with those fangs,” the young man remarked sarcastically and jumped down from the machine to stand before him. 

Vlad couldn’t help from smirking at the continuedly height difference. Seems like he would always be the tallest of them. 

“I had the impression that I should be looking for a bearded caveman in leather clothing, at least according to Skulker,” Vlad mused and took in the sight of the exact opposite without hiding his admiration. 

Daniel lifted a teasing eyebrow, “and last time I checked out the magazine’s foldout pages, you weren’t that old or wearing glasses. Going blind with age, old man?” 

Vlad was a bit taken back by the casual jap and cocky tone. No, Daniel certainly hadn’t lost his brattish side. It seemed to have only flourished. 

“It’s a disguise, you little brat,” he scowled and took of the glasses, knew he was falling back into the old drill of arguing on a child’s level, but couldn’t help it, “if I remember correctly a certain someone used to sport the same kind of glasses back in New York.” 

Daniel snorted and snatched the glasses to wear them, “yeah, but unlike you, I don’t look like a grandpa in them. So what are you doing here, Vlad? Hunting a page? Begging the Packers to move in with you? Overshadow some helpless millionaire to get their company? Kill someone who looked at you funny? Kill a packer millionaire with a page?” 

Vlad didn’t take the bait and surprised Daniel be removing the glasses gently from his face with an honest expression. He wasn’t here to argue or exchange battle insults. They had to move on from that. 

“I came to see you.” 

His little badger blinked surprised, but then sent him a glare that clearly doubted his statement. 

“Suuuure,” Daniel drawled and crossed his arms in distrust, “you came all this way just…to…see… _meeee._ ” 

Vlad nodded in a severe manner and packed away the glasses, Daniel frowned with suspicion. 

“And then what?” 

_Take you on those blue sheets under the stars._ “Finding you and securing you were with good health was my main reason really,” he explained casual, “how was the visit to the Far Frozen?” 

Daniel just stared at him. Vlad wouldn’t admit it, but he was sitting on pins and needle over here. Waiting for his next words with unease. If Daniel didn’t want to see him again, this would be the moment he’d voiced such wish. 

Vlad didn’t show, of course, he was Vlad Masters… well the II, but still Vlad Masters – which meant showing any weakness would be undignified. 

He was a bit taken back by the other’s sudden grin. 

“Phffffff, forty-two years and you’re still such a fruitloop,” Daniel snickered and put up a wane smile as he pushed his hair back, “of course you know about my time in the Far Frozen, nothing gets past you, does it?” 

“You know me to well,” Vlad smiled and took a seat by the desk, “nice to see that you’re still the fine young man I raised you to be.” 

Where Daniel usually would have scowled and sneered some insult at him, he just smirked. 

“Yeah, I know you – but I think the credit goes to all the yetis of the Far Frozen. I had a good time out there, seems that all I needed was a long vacation.” 

Vlad couldn’t deny that, “you look well, Daniel. Is the game business and city treating you well?” 

“It’s fine,” Daniel assured casually, “it’s the most relaxing job I’ve ever taken and as for the city, I got my own advertising stores with three different Phantom mugs now. How goes your plan for world domination?” 

“I’ve placed it on hold to explore the business world, no need for your hero complexes to worry, little badger.” 

A slight glint of suspicion appeared in his eyes, but that could just be an old habit. 

They had played this game so many times before, after all it was only natural. It was easy to fall back into the old pattern, even though Vlad would have to admit he couldn’t recall them ever having such a civil conversation before. 

They were already five minutes in and no blasts, insults or threats had been thrown. 

Marvelous. 

“So you came just to see me, huh?” 

Vlad tilted his head a bit by the doubtful tone, “is that so hard to believe, Daniel?” 

“Do you really wanna know or should we keep up the friendly faces and smalltalk?” Daniel challenged him with a stern expression. 

“Unless you have some entertaining conspiracies to amuse me with, then no, let’s keep up the good appearance for as long as possible.” 

Daniel just shook his head at that and Vlad couldn’t help from grinning, the light jab and teasing banter was a new delightful territory to tread. It was more than he could have hoped for. 

“No seriously, why are you really here, Vlad?” 

“You really don’t believe my word when I say I’m not here for the sake of a scheme?” 

“No,” the younger replied bluntly with hard eyes, the old man finally showing his face behind the mask of youth. 

Now it was Vlad’s time to shake his head dramatically and he looked to the restaurant he had waited at just a few minutes before, “can I treat you to dinner, Daniel?” 

The young halfa turned his head and read the name of the restaurant with a humored scoff, “’ _Paris_ ’, how ironic.” 

“One could say and speaking of Paris – you left in such a hurry back then, my boy.” 

The cocky smile withered and Vlad regretted his words. _Oh, Twinkies_. He enjoyed pushing Daniel’s buttons to much, should have weighted his words gentler. Why had he mentioned Paris? 

“Vlad,” Daniel suddenly said with a voice echoing all the unsaid things of their last sane meeting, “I’m…I have to close the arcade.” 

Vlad felt a sting of hurt when Daniel refused to meet his eyes and began pulling the plugs for the karaoke machine and went to the desk to get his keys and jacket. 

Vlad followed him, trying to find the right words to say in order to break this silence and ended up trailing the younger male until they stood outside the arcade. Daniel continued to look away from him and locked the door. 

Stuffed the key into his pocket without a word. 

“Daniel,” he began, but a raised hand stopped him. 

“I’m not in the mood for it, Vlad. You found me, saw me and it’s late. I have friends coming over for breakfast tomorrow morning and I need to clean the kitchen before that.” 

Vlad could hear the unsaid farewell and his chest tightened in panic as Daniel began walking away. He still had things to say and questions to receive answers to. He had to make Daniel stay somehow! 

But before he could come with a solution born from either panic or desperation, the young man looked back over his shoulder with an unreadable expression. 

“You can let me treat you to lunch here tomorrow at twelve. Don’t be late, Vlad.” 

Vlad was more stunned than shocked by the unweaving order he had just received and watched his soulmate walk away without a word. 

Vlad had been wrong, but it didn’t bother him the least. 

The Daniel of the past hadn’t returned to him, as he first had believed, and he probably never would. The present Daniel was his own person and carried the scars of his past with a raised chin. 

And Vlad had fallen in love once again.

   
 

“Horns?” 

Dani looked up from her bacon and egg, a little annoyed by being interrupted during her tale of yesterday’s fight with a new ghost. 

“Yeah, he had horns – but I’m more concerned about those ratings our instruments caught. He’s just as strong as you, Danny.” 

“You know him?” Valerie added and took a bit of her toast with melted butter, before returning to the new invention she had brought to fix while they talked. 

As far as Danny could understand it was a tracking devise that could lock on to a ghost's unique signature and seek it out wherever it goes. 

Danny kept his back to them as he watched the last coffee drip into the pot and prepared a blank face as he turned around to sit down and pour them a cup each. 

“Maybe, did you get his name?” 

“Nah, he ran before we could get a real fight out of him,” Dani replied and stuffed herself with some fresh cut fruit, before handing Danny the bowl for him to fill his own plate. 

The Team Phantom Breakfast Club had already been going for little over an hour and Danny suppressed a yawn. 

He had used most of last night to clean up, but it had taken him longer than usual as he would constantly zoom out and lose track of time. Just thinking, his thoughts running in circle. 

He had a date. 

There was no beating about the bush, it was a date with Vlad and he had made it clear being the one to invite the man out and not the other way around. 

But why? 

Danny bit his lip, recalled how sorry Vlad had looked after he’s mentioned Paris. Like he hadn’t wanted to hurt Danny intentionally and honestly regretted it. Which was strange. 

Before that they had just bantered like they always would – well, on a strange causal level, but it had gotten a little old and both had felt the missing venom that usual made up for it. Guess they both had gotten tired of it all. 

Or maybe…maybe Vlad had changed? 

Or maybe Danny had? 

He looked into his coffee, saw before him all the times they had quarreled and how Vlad would start out arrogantly, while Danny would reply with something threatening. 

This time, Vlad had been polite and Danny responding with teasing. Almost the old script, just…lighter. Like someone had taken the edge of their emotions. 

For a second, Danny had believed himself to have lost all feelings – bad as less bad – for the man and been able to leave him right there at the sidewalk outside the arcade. But then something had changed as he had seen Vlad’s expression. 

The face of a vulnerable man. 

It had made Danny feel again, made him trust something in his heart and give him a second chance. But why? 

He didn’t love Vlad, didn’t have a crush on him like when he was young – not even really angry at him anymore. Just…numb. 

It wasn’t like he needed Vlad either, Vlad of all should know that by now and if anything, Vlad should have long since learned that it would take a miracle to really change Danny. 

But then why had Danny wished to give him a second chance? Was it pure pity? His old hero instinct? Danny didn’t know, only knew that something in him couldn’t let the halfa go. Not completely. 

It could be because Vlad was part of his past, but he had let go of many people before and accepted the loss of loved ones. 

He scowled at himself – or maybe it was just his libido speaking. After all, he hadn’t getting laid since the second world war. 

Danny toke a large sip of his coffee, tried not to think of Vlad and the way he had been staring at Danny while he’d shaking his hips on the karaoke machine. 

Danny still couldn’t believe he had gotten the nerve to ask Vlad out and it made him blush a bit. Did he really believe for one second that Vlad wouldn’t see that as an invitation back to his bed? 

What was he doing? 

“You’re okay?” 

Danny snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to find both females staring at him with concern, “what? Something one my face?” 

“You’re a bit red,” Valerie mentioned and placed her hand on his forehead to check his temperature. Danny’s blushed grew in embarrassment and he hurried to move her hand. 

“Ew, Val, don’t do that when you’ve arrived straight out of the lab – for all I know you could have touched anti-ghost acid or something.” 

Valerie huffed and Dani hid her grin behind the rim of the cup, “don’t worry, cuz, there’s no acid where those hands have been.” 

“Dani!” her fiancé gasped and Danny broke down in laughter and high-fived his cousin much to Valerie’s displeasure. 

She shook her head and turned the last screw of her invention, before she suddenly held it in front of Danny. He crocked an eyebrow as it suddenly blinked with a little green light, as if activated. 

Valerie said noting, before she then threw it out the window. 

Danny snorted, “I got a trashcan you know.” 

“I know,” she replied calmly and smirked as the invention came flying back through the window and knocked Danny right in the forehead. 

Dani spit her coffee in laughter and Danny rubbed his head with a scowl, “a boomerang, how clever.” 

“Thank you,” she smiled and admired her own work, “I call it the ‘Axion Booo-merang’. Other than finding ghosts, it will probably come in handy with smart mouthed dorks.” 

“Then you might wanna lock it onto Dani,” Danny said and received a nasty look from his cousin. 

He grinned and avoided the piece of toast meant for his face, “yeah, ghost situation – can’t say I know a ghost with horns, though, but maybe he’s changed since I last saw him. But I doubt that him – no I don’t think I know your ghost” 

“Ghosts change appearance like that?” Dani asked surprised and Danny nodded. 

“Yeah, you’ve seen the old pictures of Phantom. They might be in black and white, but my skin was tan back then and not as greenish as now. My eyes were just plain green back then to. The blue color of the scelra and pale green irises came after my time in the Far Frozen.” 

“Ghost cores evolved with the environment they’re exposed to,” Valerie added and took her coffee black, “if an ice core spend time in the colder part of the Ghost Zone, the ghostly appearance will begin to morph into traits of its core element.” 

Danny was slightly impressed with her knowledge, but something told him that she hadn’t gotten that much knowledge from just talking with ghosts unlike himself. 

Her methods had gotten more human after they formed Team Phantom and took up his policy of banishing ghosts rather than blasting them to kingdom come, but there were still parts of the Axion Lab that Danny rather not visit. 

The laboratory as an example. 

“Then what elements grow horns?” he asked curious and Valerie stuffed a piece of bacon into her mouth and washed it down with juice. 

“Fire, as far as I’m concerned. I guess most fire based cores will be attracted to dragons – there’s a lot of those monsters in the Ghost Zone.” 

Danny tried imagining Vlad with horns, not that hard when the halfa made it a virtue to style his black hair like it. But now that he had actual horns…what did he do with the hair then? Not to ask his white tunic. 

Was he still wearing that or had he upgraded like Danny had? Maybe something less loose, but tight that would make his abs and muscles show, not to mention – 

“Danny you’re drooling,” Dani frowned and handed him a napkin, “you’re not getting some kinda ghost flue, are you?” 

“I’m fine” Danny insisted, cleared his throat awkwardly and camouflaged his unease with a sip of coffee, only to cringle. He had forgotten to add cream and sugar, damn it! 

“I suggest we make a patrol and seek him out all of us,” Valerie said and checked her pager as it beeped to get her attention, “oh shot, my meetings have been rescheduled. I gotta go, we can patrol when I’ve finished this deal.” 

“Something big?” Dani asked and rose as well to walk her fiancé to the door. Valerie allowed her to help with the coat and grabbed her keys to her car. 

“If I play the cards right, it will be the most important deal I’ve ever made,” she replied with a complacent smirk and Dani grinned before kissing her goodbye. 

“Make them eat your shorts!” she called and Danny waved after the sportscar as Valerie drove off. He and Dani lingered a bit in the door and Dani crossed her arms in thought and leaned against the frame. 

“Got any plans for today?” 

“Just a date,” he replied offhandedly and then realized what he’d just said. Dani twilled around to look at him with wide eyes. 

“A date!?” 

“No! Yes…uhm, I don’t know,” he tried explaining sheepish and rubbed his neck, “I’m not sure. I mean, I made it sound like a date, but he’s asked me out before without it being a real one – is it a legit one now just because I’m the one to take him out this time?” 

Dani had to ponder on that one and pursed her lips, “depends – do you like him?” 

“Well…” 

“As in like-like him? Or do you just enjoy his company?” 

“The last, I think?” he retorted unsure and scratched his chin, suddenly aware that he should shave before he left the house. Dani seemed to have noticed that little detail to. 

“When do you have a table?” 

“I told him to be there at 12,” Danny explained, “is that too early for a meeting? I’ve made a reservation at the restaurant, that’s how you do it, right? Call the place and book a table? …Ugh, I’ve no idea, I’ve never taken anyone out for a date before.” 

“Not even Sam?” Dani asked interested, always up for another tale of the original Team Phantom. 

Danny shook his head, “she wasn’t like that, couldn’t stand fancy restaurants or formal locations. And to be honest, she took me out and not the other way around. Apparently, I’m never the one that got to pay.” 

She grinned and pushed him inside, “but now you do, macho-man. Now go get shaved and dressed, or you’re gonna get late for your date.” 

Danny did as he was told and threw himself into it head first. He was dressed, shaved and ready to leave the house earlier than he needed and he took a final look in the mirror after haven gotten Dani’s approval. 

He had decided on his white jacket and black shirt with the loose purple tie, but to make it more presentable, he had put on a pair of black jeans and shoes. Guessing that he at least could do that to please Vlad’s stuck-up taste. 

Vlad himself had clearly been wearing an expensive suit last night and Danny shook his head. No matter what time they lived in and how many doors fashion opened, Vlad would always fall back on a suit. 

So sad. 

“I’m gonna spend the meantime in the arcade, you?” he asked and turned to her as he transformed. She blew a stand of hair out of her face with a tired face. 

“I have at least twenty papers to grade before Monday and believe me, those kids are either lazy as fuck or dick drawing jokers. Most of it will be a waste of my time.” 

“Now, now,” Danny scolded her lightly and turned intangible, “that’s a de _grading_ way to think of your own students.” 

He shot into the air before she could hit him in the head with a newspaper or something heavier and set course for the arcade. 

As predicted, it was closed and Danny knew Nick wouldn’t get her before exactly four, where the stream of game-happy kids would begin to seek out the joy of machines and find their way to the arcade. 

He landed in the middle of the empty floor and stayed in his ghost form as he moved to turn on the power. The plucked machines came to life like a sea of various color schemes and lighted up the darkened hall with its mystery. 

The sounds of games and virtual catchphrase followed by synthetic music, filled the arcade and Danny’s own skin became illuminated in the dark with the same greenish glow as phosphorescence. 

His blue and green eyes shone in the game screen’s reflections and Danny couldn’t help but feel a certain magic about the place. He checked the clock on the wall above the desk again and found that he had some house to spare before Vlad showed up. 

Danny looked around, decided on a game and jumped on to one of the sega game-motorcycles to play a racing game. 

A couple of duplicates appeared and Danny had them phased into the screen, where they pushed of the pixel figures on the competing motorcycles and made ready to race him. 

Danny turned the bike’s throttle with a fanged grin and the screen counted down from _1…2…3…GO!_

He had discovered the power to manipulate games a year back when he’d first started working at the arcade. It had been an accident, mostly. 

The ghost Technus had returned form the Ghost Zone to challenge him for his territory and delivered him to Vlad for the reward. 

Danny had beaten him easily, but then Technus had phased into the arcade and Danny had turned intangible to get him out of the precious machines and suddenly found himself in the middle of _Tron_. 

After sending the ghost back to the prison yard of Walker’s, Danny had taken up the hobby of jumping into games and planted a high-score on every single screen of every game there was to be found in Amity Park. 

Leaving the name “DP”, which of course had made the kids of the city taking up the challenge to beat it. Making it the ultimate goal to break the score of town hero Danny Phantom. 

He doubted any of them could. All his scores were ridicules high and probably impossible to beat unless you hacked the machine. 

He was in the midst of an intense battle playing the new WD-CUBE-4, not only with each a duplicate on the screen, but another duplicate in the chair besides him, when his ghost sense made him aware that a non-Phantom customer had entered the arcade. 

“Aren’t you a little too old for children’s games, Daniel?” a well-known voice smiled behind him. 

Danny snorted without looking up from the game, “my therapist told me to do things that makes me happy and annoying you is one of them – you’re early, fruitloop.” 

Plasmius crossed his arms and watched over Danny’s shoulder, “I can’t see what my person has in comment with sugary morning cereal.” 

“It’s a metaphor,” Danny whispered dramatic and his duplicate on the other seat grinned, “it’s because you’re loopy. And have you never seen the T-shirt – ‘be a fruitloop in a world of cheerios’?” 

Vlad clearly had no idea if he was being mocked or praised and just sighed, “whatever makes sense to you, little badger.” 

“I’m not little,” Danny reminded him, still staring at the screen and concentrating on the game, “now your turn, why do you call me a badger?” 

“Ever seen a honey badger before, Daniel?” 

“Nope,” he and his duplicate replied in unison and Danny got the upper hand of the game with fifty points. 

“The honey badger is a very territorial creature, but also very protective of its family. When I saw your black hair for the first time you reminded me of a badger cub. Hmmm…” 

Danny stiffened a bit with a large gloved hand ran over his hair and explored the white hair’s shift from side-cut to spiked hair. His duplicate got the upper hand from his little moment of distraction. 

“Quit it, Vlad! You’re making me lose to myself.” 

A deep chuckle sounded above him, “is that anything new?” 

Danny scoffed and watched as his duplicate inside the screen died and the duplicate in the chair next to him cheered along with his clone on the screen. 

Danny dissolved them both with a sour scowl and crossed his arms, “yeah, yeah, duplicate luck.” 

“Interesting,” Plasmius said and suddenly took the empty seat, “software fusion, how curious.” 

Danny turned to tell him it wasn’t as easy as it looked, but then blinked in surprise. Dani clearly hadn’t exaggerated when she’d mentioned the horns. 

Two curved horns almost as black as his hair ran from the temples to curl behind his pointy ears and as a result of having actual horns, Vlad had allowed his hair to hang loose down his back. 

Reaching just below the shoulders. The white tunic and pants had been replaced with a tight red battle suit and the boots and cape held in black along with the gloves. 

Plasmius turned his head to him and smirked with showing fangs when he caught the looks he was given, “like what you see?” 

“I could ask you the same,” Danny replied in an attempt to play it off, but instead of laughing at him for being childish, Vlad’s pupil-less red eyes took the liberty to roam his body openly. 

Making Danny blush a bit of green. 

Just like Vlad, he knew he had changed a bit since Paris. Time and frequent visits to the Ghost Zone seemed to have changed a lot for both of them. 

“The hazmat suit is very fitting,” Vlad finally said and clearly eyed the remade DP symbol on his chest. 

Danny just smirked, “it’s a new version of the design Sam made me back in New York.” 

Plasmius exhaled without trying to hide his annoyance, “of course you’d keep something like that, what is the goal of this meaningless entertainment again?” 

Danny didn’t comment on the man’s try to change subject and placed the controller between Vlad’s claw looking hands, “simple, you shoot after my avatar, I shoot after yours. The one that loses all his live on the bar first has lost and the rest you can figure out. Need the help of a duplicate?” 

“I think I can manage,” Vlad drawled arrogantly and Danny shrugged and placed a coin in the slot. 

The game began and they each chose an avatar and started the game. Vlad was surprisingly better than first predicted and Danny could help from laughing. 

“Let me guess, you play games in a private mancave when you don’t sit at the top of some office building and try to look important?” 

“At least I’m not scraping gum and picking up pizza crust from the floor after little brats at an arcade. Now that’s sad,” Vlad returned with an equal grin and dodged one of Danny’s better hits. 

“Not as sad as to wait outside a restaurant three hour before time,” Danny singsonged and got a bite of Vlad’s health bar. 

It was impossible to tell with eyes of a massive color, but Vlad watched the other out of the corner of his eye and smiled a bit softer, “I caught the beacon of your ecto-signature and got curious. Wanted to see you a little earlier and know that you were alrig – _HA_ , take that wimp!” 

“Hey, no fair!” Danny shouted as his avatar died and the screen announced him as the loser, “ugh – best out of three!” 

Vlad wasn’t one to refuse a challenge and place a new coin in the machine. Both of them forgot about talking and focused on the game to show who was the superior gamer. 

It was a tie out of fourteen games, when Vlad took up smalltalking again. 

“I can understand that you recently used to live with your grandniece?” 

“Looks like someone has been spying, what else did you find?” 

Vlad chuckled, “spying is such a nasty term, Daniel. Think of it as research.” 

“Alright, what did your _research_ then tell you, Mr. political correct,” Danny teased and grinned when he got a hit on Vlad, “you and I are both beyond that secrecy stage, you might as well just come clean.” 

Vlad clicked his tongue, Daniel was in many ways right. Secrecy seemed like a foolish thing to keep up, considered they had played that game for more than a lifetime now. Come clean…hmmm. Why not? 

“I meet Mrs. Gray today,” he began and waited for Daniel to forget the game and lash out on him for even getting near his friend. But to his surprise, Daniel didn’t as much as look up from the game. 

“She talked about making an important deal today, that was you?” 

“Yes,” Vlad replied slowly, testing the water, “I have been buying and making investments in ghost-research facilities these past years to keep up with the progress. The VLADCO company has a sister company that could fuse with Axion Lab and help it expand into a worldwide organization. It would help them release themselves from the contract the Guys in White has been trying to press them into and free them from the government’s control.” 

“So you were lying,” Danny concluded, hit Vlad’s avatar and killed it, still not looking up, “you came to Amity to make a deal with Valerie.” 

Vlad lifted his brow in mild surprise. Was Daniel really that crushed? 

“Oh no, I came here to see you, my boy. The deal wasn’t even planned before I went searching for you and stumbled into your little ghost-hunter team by chance. I took the second to stick around and watch them take of their helmets. Quite skilled woman you surround yourself with, Daniel. I decided to make my cover for living here more believable by moving some of my business to Amity. Officially I’m on vacation, but now I have an excuse to stay in town. And really, I can’t stand the GIW, I should have wiped them out completely in 1927 when I had the chance.” 

Danny just send him a pitiful glance, “you’re lying through your teeth, Vlad. You can do better than that.” 

Vlad cursed in his mind. It wasn’t a complete lie, even though he made it sound more rosy than necessary. 

When he had found out a Danny Phantom had begun to play hero in Amity Park, he had taken a second to investigate the authorities of the city to try and see what we would be up against when he put his future plans into action. 

That and he had been following the GIW’s revival these past years with concern and done his to buy ghost weapon industries before they could get their dirty hands on them. 

“What makes you think that?” he asked innocently and Danny just smiled. 

“I know you, Vlad.” 

“A lot of people know me,” Vlad defended and tried to keep somewhat focus on the game, “I have been working with Skulker for far longer than I have known you and he still can’t tell whenever I’m truthful or not.” 

Danny got a hit on him and accepted the can of soda a duplicate handed him, “he doesn’t know you like I do, Vlad. No one knows us like we do.” 

Vlad accepted his own can and send the other a hidden eye-glance. True, no one would ever know him like Daniel. And he Daniel, likewise. They had been together to long and gone through too much. 

Danny didn’t look up from his game as he broke the silence, “so, you’re going to stay here?” 

Vlad’s core pulsed by the hidden tone of happiness in Daniel’s voice. Could he possibly be that lucky? 

“You thought I would just leave after searching for you for forty years?” 

Danny frowned a bit, “you just usually have a double agenda, that all.” 

“Maybe I have changed,” Vlad offered and made the younger halfa roll his blue and green eyes. 

Vlad felt old annoyance return and stared at him with wide red eyes, “I can’t believe I have to endure this – did you just roll your eyes at me, Daniel?” 

A playful smirk spread across the younger’s face, “what’s ya gonna do about it?” 

“I should punish you,” Vlad replied, the etiquette of an older time speaking through him. 

“Well, maybe back in the 1900, but since I’m _wayyyy_ of age and a legal adult in a non-violence/against children policy society, that’s not gonna happen – suck it, fruitloop.” 

“Don’t call me that.” 

“You’re right, I apologize...I meant cheesehead.” 

Vlad sighed, knew this fight wasn’t worth it and turned to a verbal game he could win, “tell me Daniel, who is that young man who openly flirted with you yesterday? A past lover of yours?” 

Danny kept a straight face, “which one?” 

That made Vlad stunned enough to lose some focus and Danny took in the victory points with a cheer, “eat my shots!” 

“Daniel!” 

He grinned shamelessly, “relax, Vlad. Nick knows I’m not interested and I don’t really need a man in my life right now anyway. I have my grandniece and a town to look after – what about you? Anyone in your life?” 

Vlad kept his tone casual as well, “at the moment? Not per se, my growing wealth and position has of course attracted a couple of admires, but not anyone I could see myself with. I’m fine with Maddie at the moment.” 

“You got a new cat and named her Maddie to?” 

“No, I made a deal with a ghost with animal whispering abilities and waited for her to spawn as a ghost. She returned to me three years after her death. But I can’t seem to figure out how she turned obese in death. She’s become quite the handful with her constant demand for food and sudden fright of lightning.” 

Vlad held his expression as calm as possible, trying his outmost not to show he was lying straight out of his teeth. Unlike Daniel, Vlad had come to study the pages of Sojourn very closely and made his experiments on them. 

At first, he had done it out of necessarily – had to know if the pages could be destroyed with simply fire or water, in order to secure his collection wouldn’t be ruined in his possession. 

When he found that nothing earthly could touch the pages, he had been pleased, but his curiosity only growing. 

The pages held much ghostly essence and seemed to have strange powers, but nothing as strange as the one that had shown when Maddie had tried to eat one of his pages. 

The page hadn’t suffered any casualties and neither the cat, but Vlad had been stunned to find his dead cat return to him in the exact same fashion as his old housemaid had back in 1927. 

After a great deal of researched and a few (unwilling) volunteers, Vlad had come to discover that the pages held a curse. As a halfa, it didn’t affect him, but something could seem that the pages would secure its bearer a life after death simply after a mere touch. 

Something Walker and his hench,an seemed to have suffered along with others. The only reason Vlad could think this to be any kind of benefit to the pages, would be a form of security for the pages to keep drifting between the ghost and living world. 

If a human’s body was destroyed while carrying one of the pages, the page would follow them into the ghost zone and keep on traveling for eternity. 

If a ghost on the other hand died with a page on their person, the page would simply rest on the spot and keep pulsing with a strong beacon till the next person followed its strong call. 

Danny didn’t seem to find anything strange in Vlad’s lie and simply nodded, “seems like we both have thrown ourselves into work then.” 

“Indeed,” Vlad agreed and placed another coin into the game, he had to win this round if he wanted the title as the superior WD-CUBE-4 shooter, “the world is going faster every decade, might as well try and keep up with the progress.” 

“Makes you feel old, doesn’t it?” Danny asked tiredly, his tone spilling that it wasn’t just Vlad he was asking, “I’m glad you came to see me, though. This is nice, don’t you think? Two old men playing a game and quarrel over fair play…talking about how our grandchildren and cats are doing.” 

“You make us sound like we belong in a nursing home,” Vlad chuckled and received a genial smile from the other halfa. 

“Could you imagine that? Being old humans? You would be so old, I would have to push you around in a wheelchair and have a nurse changing your diaper every six minute.” 

Vlad scoffed, “and I’m certain you would be almost complete deaf and blind, yelling at your grandniece to make her speak louder and come with racist, if not, homophobic comment about her choice of partner.” 

Danny laughed, “and you be all like _’in my days, I was the most powerful man in the world, so where is my bean porridge!? I demand ma’ food!_ ’” 

The shaking old man voice got a little too close for Vlad’s likening, but he was having too much fun to care about his wounded ego, “and you would forget to take the handed-out pills. End up talking about some new meteor shower with a tree in the garden.” 

“Of course I would,” Danny snickered, “while you’d sit in front of the TV and buy ugly jewelry and trinkets’ for your seven cats on the TV-shop. Convinced that you’re making a good deal.” 

They both laughed at that and Danny dried his eyes as he lost the game. He turned to Vlad in the seat and send him a warm smile, “we should do this more often, ya know? It reminds me of the old days when we first discovered each other’s ghosts-half’s.” 

Vlad nodded, the sweeter time of the past returning to him as well, “indeed, this if far more enjoyable than any past collisions we’re ever had. Remember the early 1910s when you were a schoolchild?” 

Danny shuttered, “not to forget the 20s, those where the worst. You were the worst.” 

Vlad smiled vaguely at that, “the 40s was no better.” 

“Yeah, I almost stole your evil spotlight,” Danny smirked, “made you look like a wuss.” 

“Don’t be childish, Daniel.” 

“Then don’t be old, Vlad.” 

They stared each other down in silent battle before both suddenly smiled. 

“We have missed the reservation,” Danny noted and Vlad smirked. 

They had. With three hours.


	42. Two old men alone together, two old men staying young forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> After Danny ruined the castle and escaped Vlad, he collided on a boat on the sea  
>  _A light kick woke Danny from the deep sleep. “We thought you to be, stranger. You Englishman, yes?”_  
>  _Danny looked up to be met with a tanned sailor with the most crimson beard Danny had ever witnessed. The man reminded him of a bear, but his eyes was surprisingly friendly and shone with a curious hazel hue. Danny wetted his dry lips. Man, he was thirsty._  
>  _“Yeah, I’m English – wait, you thought I was dead?”_  
>  _The man scratched his beard, “you been sleeping for four day, my friend. We not wake you no matter what we do – Einar said you fell down from the sky like bird, but he is a drunk to. If you Englishman, you far off from home, yes. We are fishing near Godthab, Greenland coast – going to make big money of the next catch.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> time gives and takes, but Danny loses more than most  
>  _“Don’t worry,” Danny soothed with a relaxed pose and blew out a huff of grey smoke, watched the man with calm lidded eyes that seemed to blue to be real, “Sam lived to be an old woman and used her inheritance to travel the world and worked for many years as a fighter for the environment and peoples right, mostly in Africa and Asia. She settled down in 1956 with a man in Hong Kong and adopted two little Japanese children. I found out through some old records that she had named them Lilith…and Danny.”_  
>  Danny stared ahead for a second, scratched his neck and blew another huff of smoke – ignored Nichols eyes, to avoid getting addressed with his sympathy.  
>  _“She died in 1971,” Danny continued, “same year as Tucker, funny enough…but while he slept in besides his wife, she was run over by a car on the street. One of those first monster trucks to ever drive on the roads. She hated those things, they were bad for the environment and noisy as fuck. How I know that, is because she wrote an article about banning them…kinda ironic one of the very threats to nature she devoted her life to stop, ended up stopping her."_  
>  _“Danny…” Nichols began._  
>  _“I said I’m fine. I knew time would take them from me, I always knew that and I’m over it. They grew old and happy with their families. That’s enough for me.”_
> 
> And Skulker makes sure that Vlad dosen't get distracted  
>  _Vlad folded his hands behind his back with a stern expression, "there's no need for this to get any bloodier, Walker. All I want from you is simple information. Where is Danny Phantom now?"_  
>  _Walker scowled, "why should I tell you anything?"_  
>  _Skulker wacked the ghost in the back of the head for raising his voice and tried to keep a straight face. Unlike Walker, Skulker knew the position of the whelp and could easily save his boss some time by simply telling him. But despite that, the hunter kept silent._  
>  _But despite the risk of ending there himself by keeping quiet, Skulker had decided to keep the whelp's current position to himself. The whelp was right. Plasmius had a bad habit of losing focus when the other Halfa popped into his attention and Skulker couldn't allow that when they were this close to find the last five pages. No distractions were allowed._
> 
> But despite his efforts, the halfa meet again and things escalate  
>  _He and Dani lingered a bit in the door and Dani crossed her arms in thought and leaned against the frame._  
>  _“Got any plans for today?”_  
>  _“Just a date,” he replied offhandedly and then realized what he’d just said. Dani twilled around to look at him with wide eyes._  
>  _“A date!?”_  
>  _“No! Yes…uhm, I don’t know,” he tried explaining sheepish and rubbed his neck, “I’m not sure. I mean, I made it sound like a date, but he’s asked me out before without it being a real one – is it a legit one now just because I’m the one to take him out this time?”_  
>  _Dani had to ponder on that one and pursed her lips, “depends – do you like him?”_  
>  _“Well…”_  
>  _“As in like-like him? Or do you just enjoy his company?”_  
>  _“The last, I think?” he retorted unsure._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hello you wonderful, yet misunderstood creatures of the web :)  
> Ready for some more pompous pep? you got it!  
> a part of this chapter was inspired from a pompous pep comic i once rea were Danny has a barbell - but i can't find it anymore - anyone know it?  
> Hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1986, the local grocery store, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_

Vlad lifted a pack of beef rib roast, “how about Herb-Crusted Prime Rib with seasoned vegetables and rice? It would match the wine splendid.” 

Danny tilted his head with an uncertain hum. 

After having missed their lunch reservation at the restaurant and played till almost four, they had wandered the street in search for a new activity and decided to just buy something for an early dinner instead and cook at Danny’s house. 

In Danny’s mind, they were just going to make something simple, but nothing was ever simple with Vlad Masters. Of course he would want something extra like beef rib, wine and creme brulee – why was Danny even surprised? 

“Or,” Danny stressed, “we could just buy a pizza dough and some topping. Hands up, who’s up for pizza?” 

Danny raised his hand and Vlad shook his head, “I admit we’re both guilty about the reservation, but you’re still stated you would take me out for a meal, Daniel. I’m still expecting something eatable, not junk food with the same taste experience as salted cardboard.” 

“Fineeeeee, but does it really have to be so extra? Don’t tell me you’ve never eaten something that’s not glazed in wine and torched by a four-star chef blessed by moonlight and spring water, Vlad. Cause that’s just sad.” 

Vlad scoffed and picked out a new pack of meat to read on the backside, “enjoying the finer things in life isn’t a sin, my boy. You should know that of all people. Remember the courses we used to enjoy at _The Criterion_ in London?” 

“That place was to snobbish for anyone to enjoy anything,” Danny sighed and picked up a pack of frozen fries, “how about fish n’ chips? That’s London for you.” 

“I said no junk food, badger,” Vlad corrected calmly and walked to the vegetable aisle to examine a wrapped bunch of asparagus, “but if you’re afraid you can’t cook anything suitable to my taste, I’ll gladly cook for you.” 

“I can cook,” Danny insisted indigitated and snatched the shopping cart from his hands, “just pick what you want and I’ll make it then.” 

Vlad chuckled and followed him with a smirk, “then how does Italian sounds to you?” 

“Is pasta and sauce with meatballs good enough for his highness?” Danny replied sarcastically and Vlad rolled his eyes at the younger male’s short temper. 

“If that’s to your abilities, then I’ll accept. Let’s find the needed ingrediencies then, hmm?" 

Danny scowled, but handed him back the cart anyway and followed along. Vlad continued to be smug as he placed wine and a package of linguini in the cart. 

Danny picked what he needed for the meatballs and suddenly grinned. 

“Hey Vlad,” he said and the older halfa turned to him, as Danny showed him a fruit, “when shopping just remember that it takes two to _mango_.” 

Vlad just stared at him a little surprised, “I beg your pardon?” 

“No, pardon,” Danny insisted and lifted package from the frost aisle, “‘cause I don’t give a _ham_.” 

Vlad’s confusion changed to that of distaste, “is this your attempt to humor me or just being silly in general?” 

“Aw, come on Vlad, don’t go _beacon_ my heart.” 

“Daniel, this is highly disturbing.” 

Danny just snickered and rummaged through the shelves to see what else he could find, “hey, Vlad!” 

“I’m not playing this silly game,” the man replied calmly and picked out the needed herbs with his back to the childish octogenarian. 

“Hey, Vlad! Vlad, hey!” 

Vlad sighed, knew from experience that this wouldn’t end till he had suffered the entire length of stupidity, “what?” 

Danny lifted a bag of peanuts and sausages with a goofy grin, “it _nuts_ to _meat_ you here!” 

Vlad then decided to ignore him completely. 

Danny wasn’t slain that easily and caught up with him on long legs and placed a box of frozen pizza rolls in the cart, “so you’re on a _roll_ now? You’re really one in a _melon_ , huh?” 

“Daniel, I swear…” Vlad sighed and lifted the watermelon out of the card again, “you’re too old for this foolishness!” 

An egg tray and pack of small pancakes took the melon’s place. 

“ _Egg_ cuse me? Do I _crepe_ you out or something?” 

Vlad pinching the bridge of his nose and groaning, “and I hoped you had grown out of that habit.” 

_This is the punishment for trying to beat it out of him as a teen,_ Vlad realized and cursed himself. 

Danny made a mocking expression of hurt, “but Vlad! I _doughnut_ understand?” 

The older halfa pushed the plastic tray of ring shaped parties out of his glaring face with a grumble, “I can see that. Daniel, this is getting old.” 

Danny only snickered like a naughty teen, “enough to make you _raisin_ your voice at me?” 

“I won’t make a scene unless you continued this nonsense, Daniel.” 

Danny scoffed offended with a hand on his hip and placed a bag of frozen vegetables in the card, “bitch _peas_? My humor is hilarious.” 

“Daniel this is my last warning.” 

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” Danny promised and went silent as they continued to search for their dinner ingrediencies. 

The silence soon became uncomfortable and Vlad wondered if he had been too hard on the other. Danny continued to pick out things he would need for cooking without a word and didn’t meet his eyes. 

He sighed before Vlad could say something, “sorry. I guess I can be a bother sometime.” 

Vlad shook his head dismissive, “you’re not a bother, my boy. But you know how I get when you start making those ridicules food puns.” 

“I know”, Danny replied quietly and suddenly stopped him with a hand on his arm. 

Vlad looked up to meet his eyes and felt a bit flustered by the sudden loving gaze he was given. Danny smiled sincerely and placed a little box of _Royal_ in his hand. Closed Vlad’s hand around it with a tender whisper, “thanks for _pudding_ up with me…phfffffffff! Hahahahahah!!” 

Vlad hid his face in his hands and groaned like he was in pain, while the still laughing jester hunched in laughing cramps beside him. 

People around them had begun to send them long glances and parents pushed their children along to make them stop staring at the two men clearly having each reaction to a meltdown. 

Vlad rubbed his temples with a grimace, “I swear, your bad humor will be the death of me.” 

Danny looked up, suddenly a bit upset and bit his lip with a concerned frown. 

“But Vlad…that would make me…” he lifted a box of Fruitloops with a shit-eating grin; “a _cereal_ killer.” 

“DANIEL!” 

“Okay, okay,” Danny promised grinningly and dried his eyes, still cramping from all the laughter and placed the cereal box into the cart, “I’ve used up my repertoire of food puns anyway.” 

“Thank heavens,” Vlad mumbled and walked beside him to the cashier, “I was beginning to fear a truce would be needed to end this nonsense.” 

Danny send him a long look as he began to fill the counter’s conveyor belt with their purchases and pursed his lips in thought, “we should probably do that anyway.” 

Vlad considered it for a slight second. 

They had tried making a truce several times before and all of them had seemed lacking in some way or another. The first time that had been the day they stepped out of the dark and admitted their halfa status for one another. 

The second was the day they met in New York and then…that time Daniel had taken their sexlife into a whole new angle in a daze of deathblossom and hate-sex. 

A truce of final peace between them had never really had a chance and all the attempts had been just as hopeless as the first when Vlad had started Daniel’s apprenticeship under his guidance. 

That one had been the most promising and even lasted two years before everything fell apart. They had even shaken hands on it. 

Could they be better than that and actually form a lasting truce for once? 

Vlad hummed quietly, “a truce would be in order. I believe the circumstances even demands it. You and I haven’t been this civil in decades, it would be a shame to go back to our past feuds when our reunion holds this much potential.” 

Danny just nodded, he had thought the exact same thing. 

They packed the food into bags in silence, each in his own thoughts, as they both made a list in their minds of the things they thought needed to discus and things to be complied in the upcoming negotiation. 

Since none of them had arrived by car or owned such a transportation – well, Vlad owned a nice collection of limos, jets, helicopters, and company vehicles, all to his disposal at all times and only a phone call away – If not more sportscars than any man could possible drive in a lifetime, but just like Danny, he had arrived at the arcade by ghost powers and walked with him to the grocery store – meaning they would take the old fashion way to Danny’s home. 

With teleportation. 

They arrived inside Danny’s kitchen in a cloud of green smoke and Danny sat the bags down with a spinning head. He had all forgot about the no breathing rule while teleporting and had to sit down a second. 

“I could just have opened a portal, you dickhead,” he whined and Vlad transformed back to human with a smirk. 

“I think not. We have already had this discussion and it’s still proven by a timer that my powers bring a corporeal form from one place to another faster than yours.” 

“Maybe,” Danny replied with rolled eyes, had hoped that the elder had forgotten about that victory and stopped being so smug about it, “but my portals are way cooler than your teleportation and that’s proven by survey – just aske everyone that tried.” 

“Unless you discover a way to ask the dead and unspawned, then that would make two people – you and me,” Vlad replied with a smirk. 

But then caught the other’s expression and knew he had walked into a hurtful territory. Danny collected himself fast enough and accepted the bags from Vlad and began unpacking what he needed for dinner. 

The silence had returned and Danny exhaled slowly. 

“How did they take my disappearance?” 

Vlad didn’t have to ask who “they” were and helped him get the pots and pans with a conversational tone, “Mr. Foley and Miss. Manson left New York around same time as myself and I lost contact with them. I believe they left the states as an item.” 

“But they never married,” Danny finished, more thoughtful than sad, “I looked them up a year ago. Turns out they walked each way after a few years. Tucker got married and Sam traveled to Japan. They both died around ten years ago.” 

“My condolences,” Vlad replied, more out of custom than actual compassion, but Danny didn’t really care. Vlad’s despise for his friends had never been a secret. 

“It’s fine, it’s not like I could have stayed with them forever anyway. I tried to make up for it though, by sending their families money last Christmas. I guess I’ll make it a tradition from now on.” 

Vlad felt a bit disturbed by the casual tone, but didn’t comment on it. Vlad himself never spook emotional of his past acquaintances either. There was no use getting attached to beings with such short lifespan compared to immortals like them. 

“So,” Danny stated with a wry smile and put on an apron, “truce?” 

Vlad’s eyes went to the pink apron and he lifted an amused eyebrow in question. 

Danny just smirked and leaned on the counter like some coy housewife, “like my grandniece’s Christmas gift? Its cotton, try feel it – it’s cooking material.” 

Vlad didn’t doubt that, “charming, I might take up the offer later – but yes, the truce. Anything you might want clarified or terms you want stated?” 

Danny pushed of the counter to fill one of the pots with water from the sink and clinked his tongue, “well, first of all, I think I need to clarify some rules. Amity Park is my territory, that means I rule this place and my fights are my own. If you begin making deals with ghosts or brings any into my domain without my consent, I’m going to beat you up – understand?” 

Vlad did, he had expected that much. Although the charming “beat you up” part was up for debate, Daniel might be a terrific halfa, but Vlad doubted that he had the power to prove Vlad superior at this time. 

“And for the second – if you hurt or in any way harm Dani or Valerie, I’m not going to stop till you’re dead,” Danny scowled and send him a warning look, “and if you try and make a move on me again I’ll cut your fucking hand of. Do I make myself clear?” 

“Clear as day, my boy,” Vlad assured and was pleased to find that the younger halfa hadn’t stated any unpredicting terms. 

This was all very fundamental and something Vlad could work with. Or work around, give or take. 

Danny scoffed by the other’s pleased smirk and began preparing the meat for the meatballs, “good. Anything you want to add on the table?” 

Vlad leaned against the counter to watch him work, “I have planes of staying in Amity Park and as my employees, both Fright Night and Skulker will return to me through a portal I intend to install in my new lab. It will be used solely for the purpose of my own business in the Ghost Zone and as said, contact with other ghosts under my supervision. But in the honor of this truce I will ask for your permission to do so.” 

Danny took a second to debate and then nodded, “fine, but if you invite them through the portal, then they _stay_ in your place and not one meter further. If one of them phases out of the house and into the city the truce is off.” 

Vlad hid his smile. The term “phasing” and “his place” left a whole lot of loopholes to his advantage. Skulker could just walk out the door like a human and the truce would still be in function. How delightful. 

“Understandable. I’ve already told you about the deal I made this morning with the daring Miss. Gray. As a businessman and opportunist, I might find other interests in the city to invest in and add to my global affairs. All in good will of Amity of course.” 

Danny send him a suspicious look, but Vlad kept a straight face and acted as nothing. Instead he decided it was time to lead Daniel astray and walked up behind him to get a better look at the curios display of cooking the younger male was setting. 

“Daniel, what on earth are you doing to the ground beef?” 

Danny rolled his eyes, “I’m making meatballs, isn’t it obvious? You need those glasses back on or something?” 

Vlad just stared as he added onions to the bowl and snatched the milk from the younger’s hand before he could pour it into to. 

“I can’t recall ever having heard of dairy products used this loosely in the Italian kitchen. Do I really need to correct you in everything?” 

The milk was snatched back and Danny scowled, “stop being such a jerk and let me cook – and for the record, I’m not doing it the Italian style, this is a Scandinavian recipe. I learned to make it on an Icelandic cutter.” 

That made absolutely no sense in Vlad’s ears, “and what on earth were you doing on a cutter in the first place?” 

“Remember when I destroyed the castle?” Danny asked and began mixing the meat with his hands. 

Vlad reminded himself that Daniel had washed his hands before cooking and returned to his leaned pose. 

“Of course.” 

“I know, stupid question. But after I woke up I shot into the air and just continued until I crashed. Turns out I almost took a dive into the ocean, but landed on a boat instead. I became a sailor after that, I even got a tattoo.” 

Vlad, who had opened the wine to drink while waiting for dinner, almost spit his drink and stared in horror, “please tell me you didn’t.” 

Danny grinned, “just joking. But short story, I learned to make different dishes from the ship's cook. Mostly meatballs, potatoes, and fish, but it was pretty good.” 

Vlad poured them both a glass and felt a bit of interest sparkle. 

He had of course speculated in the other’s ventures during the seven-year period from the castle’s fall to their reunion in New York City, but the chance to catch up with the other and start a civilized conversation had never really occurred and the importance of it had been lost during the years. 

Perhaps it was time to make it right. 

“And after the boat?” he asked and pulled a chair from the table to sit on. 

Danny took a sip of the Cabernet Sauvignon, made a face and then bowed down to search after a bottle in his corner cabin. He placed a clear bottle filled to the brim with a dark liquor on the table and handed it to the other. 

Vlad recognized the sweet smell of deathblossom and added a doze to each glass. 

Danny took a new sip and hummed satisfied, “better. You really wanna know what I did after returning to land?” 

Vlad nodded and Danny tried to figure if he was lying or not. But if Vlad really wasn’t interested he wouldn’t have asked in the first place and Danny guessed they’d never really had the time to tell their tales before now. 

Not that he had cared, he already had a pretty good idea of what Vlad had been doing in their times apart. 

Vlad listened with clear interest as Danny began explaining his journey from the cost of Canada to the settlement in New York and seemed a bit surprised to hear about all the jobs and lifestyles the younger had experienced. 

Danny guessed it sounded more impressive when you retold it. Really it had just been a travel he had taken on foot instead of flying to try and kill time and his past. 

The ice fishing in Canada had given him some time to think after his time with Vlad and the work at the railroad had kept him busy, as he had built his own road down the east coast. 

There had been ghosts along the way and time to explode his powers while he worked as a lumberjack for a sawmill in Montreal. After that, it had been shorter timespans of occupations, like picking apples, work in a coal mine and delivering stuff. 

At the end of the road, Danny had ended up searching for a job at a factory in the big city and stumbled across Sam and Tucker instead. 

“What about you?” Danny asked and turned to his former nemesis with interest, “other than hunting pages and pretending to be your own son, that is.” 

“I went on vacation, took some time away to create a new identity and start over with a new name, face and sum of money added to the old,” Vlad replied and tapped the side of his glass with a nail in thought. 

It had been a long time ago, a different time of different sorrows. 

“Figured,” Danny snorted and began to roll the meat into small even balls with experience. Vlad could only watch with fascination. Turns out he had underestimated the other and his cooking skills. 

“I needed to disappear for a while and take my business where no one would recognize me to play the act as my own heir. It was to a distinct quite amusing. Taking up a new identity was a lot easier than I had expected, but it had its difficulties of course.” 

“Like cutting and color your hair?” Danny mused and stirred the pasta. 

“Don’t tell me you’re still sour about that, badger?” 

Danny grinned and washed his hands, “it gave me a bit of an eye opener. Who would have known there was a fresh fruitloop under all that grey?” 

“Silver,” Vlad corrected him and Danny rolled his eyes. 

“Whatever – what about the time I was in the circus? Where were you doing those years?” 

Vlad was a bit surprised to hear Daniel mentioned the circus in such an offhanded manner, but decided not to comment on it for the sake of the comfortable conversation. 

“Mostly collecting pages. Trying to solve the mystery that was your prison escape.” 

Danny turned down the heat on the stove and ran a hand through his hair, “sounds boring – mind if I smoke?” 

Vlad frowned a bit as the other lid a cigarette and watched the trained hands handle the roll, “why did you take up smoking, Daniel? I have been meaning to ask you.” 

The raven-haired opened a window to send the huff of smoke outside and felt his body calm down a bit. 

_Because it reminds me of your taste._ “No reason. You want one?” 

Vlad hadn’t smoked for decades, but wasn’t going to say no when the offer came from Daniel. He lit it with his own roseate flame and they smoked in silence for a bit as the smell of cooked food spread in the tight kitchen. 

Danny handed him the ashtray and they stubbed their cigarettes. He watched Vlad for a second with a curiously. 

“It’s funny. I can’t help but believe you when you say you came here to see me and not to hunt pages. How many before you’re complete the journal again – four pages?” 

_Actually two._ “The journal isn’t important right now, I came to see you, Daniel. There’s no page in Amity.” 

It was the truth. For once in his life, Vlad hadn’t followed Daniel to settle down in the presence of a page. Daniel searched his features, but found no signs of a lie. He seemed mildly surprised. 

“Huh…and here I was thinking you had completely ditched me for the journal after I almost killed you in Paris.” 

Vlad flinched a bit from the haunting memory, but mostly because of the younger male’s light mention of said memory. Almost a forced humor, gently served or not. 

During this conversation, Vlad had begun to come to terms with the other’s surprisingly deep acceptance of the past and figured something else must have surpassed him in that ghostly wasteland of ice. 

Something new to make him this…mature. 

But it had been forty-two years after all. Daniel wasn’t a child anymore and – _wait a second!_ Daniel thought he had abandoned him for the journal!? 

“What on earth would make you believe that?” Vlad asked, deeply offended. 

Hadn’t he searched high and low for the younger halfa? Turned every stone, questioned every witness and hunted every clue? He had even tried hunting down that were-ghost and almost had him in Bangladesh, before Wulf had vanished to never be found again. 

Danny picked up a strand of linguini for test tasting and watched him with genuinely surprise, “well it’s just…I didn’t exactly _hide_ from Skulker that I was going to Amity Park, so when you didn’t come to see me right away, I thought you had moved on.” 

The glass in Vlad’s hand cracked dangerously and the red wine boiled into black goo. 

_“Skulker knew you were here!?”_

Danny realized he had just signed the cyborg’s death sentence and put up his hands with a soothing tone, “now, Vlad we’ve talked about that temper of yours. Blood pressure, remember? I’m sure he had a good reason not to tell you.” 

That didn’t seem to get Vlad out of the red zone the least and Danny could practically see his freezer melt in the heat radiating from the man, “goddammit, fruitloop, that fridge is brand new!” 

“That useless blob in a bucket!” Vlad growled, throwing a fit like a freaking toddler and Danny shook his head displeased, while the man spat sugary curses. 

Vlad kept on raging as Danny began to pull him and his chair to the table to keep a safe distance to the poor kitchen elements. Danny scowled tiredly, “hundred twenty-eight years old and you’re still a baby, just let it go, dude.” 

“Betrayal! I’m going to dissected him molecule by molecule!” Vlad ranted infuriated and Danny got enough and slapped him. 

“Get over it!” Danny scolded the shocked halfa and pushed him the last inch to the table. Danny send a supplicate to get the food and plates, and sat down in front of the nonplussed halfa. 

“So what?” the Danny sneered, as the duplicate served them and stabbed his fork into his food with more force than necessary, “he made you delay by a year, big deal. It’s probably to your luck anyway, cause I sure as hell didn’t had the time for your shit back then. Just eat your pasta and stop being such a child! He hasn’t done anything to you that you haven’t done to me – and look at me, I’ve forgiven you.” 

Vlad was still silent and send a side-glance to the duplicate serving him his dinner. Duplicate Danny shook his head at him like a parent tired of putting up with a difficult child and Vlad sighed before taking a bite. 

They ate in silence and if the awkwardness had caught up with them again, Danny didn’t acknowledge it and continued to eat stubbornly. 

He noted that Vlad, despite all odds, was helping himself to his second plate and guessed he had proved his skills in the kitchen. 

“You like it?” he grumbled. 

Vlad nodded, “seems like I underestimated you, my boy. I should let you cook for me more often.” 

Danny scoffed, but didn’t refuse per se. The dreadful atmosphere lifted a bit and new elements began to fill its absence. Danny suddenly remembered about the truce and send the other a glance. 

Had Vlad tried to make him forget on purpose? 

“We never finished discussing the truce.” 

Vlad’s face didn’t reveal any guilt, but the fact that that little smile had returned told everything Danny needed to know. That bastard. 

“I have a last thing I want to make clear,” Danny continued with crossed arms and Vlad continued his play of obviousness. 

“Which is?” Vlad asked as he finished his own meal and leaned forward in interest. 

Danny pushed his plate to the side and leaned closer with a low voice, “lest say I believe that you’re here for my company and nothing else. Let’s say I buy that and allow you to stay here and give you a second chance…” 

A hue of red suddenly appeared behind the blue in his eyes. Vlad felt old fear suddenly role down his spine and shivered. A deeper edge crept into the younger’s voice and it scared him. 

“…then let’s makes something completely clear,” Danny whispered and the temperature suddenly dropped several degrees, “if I find out that this is all a scheme for the sake of that cursed journal and another trap for you to pull on me, _you will regret it._ ” 

The red disappeared just as fast as it had appeared and Vlad could almost convince himself it had been an illusion. Almost. 

“I understand,” the older replied slowly and Danny gave him his hand without breaking the stern eye contact. The shook on it and Danny rose to leave the table. 

“Good, lets clean up then.” 

Vlad remained seated as Danny rose to head for the stove. Had to take a second to get his heart under control and hid his unease behind a mask. 

He was in control if he played his cards well, could get his will if he eased it into the other with outmost patience. 

He reminded himself that this reunion was civil because Daniel allowed it to be. They were on good terms because Daniel had wanted it to be so. 

If he kept his soulmate happy this would all fall into his hands in a satisfying manner and the fragile peace would last. Maybe even grow stronger. 

Vlad just had to be patient. 

They had barely begun to clean the dishes before a sudden ringing ran through the house and Danny looked up in confusion. 

Vlad didn’t seem disturbed the least by the sound and calmly dried his hands before walking to his coat by the door. Danny followed him curios and lifted an eyebrow when Vlad fished a brick out of his pocket and took the call. 

“You have a mobile phone?” Danny asked surprised and Vlad gestured for him to be quiet, but Danny was already in his face, “don’t you know those give ear cancer and tinnitus? What model is it?” 

“Daniel, stop it,” Vlad whispered and pressed the phone back to his ear to answer, “he has returned? Excellent…yes, I can hear that, just hand the phone to him and stop being dramatic. Yes. Just do it.” 

Danny hovered to get his ear as close as possible and Vlad tried to pry him of, “Daniel I’m talking on the phone.” 

“Do they work exactly like normal phones? But how does it function without a wire?” 

“Not now – Skulker,” Vlad greeted with business like voice and almost got his eardrum punctured when Danny yelled into the phone. 

“HE KNOWS, SKULKER! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!” 

A loud “gasp” sounded from the other end and the following ‘thud’ could indicate that the hunter had dropped the phone on the ground. Apparently, Skulker had fled. 

Vlad glare at Danny and got a large grin in return. But before Vlad could do something about the halfa, the phone was picked back up and Fright Night’s voice got loudly through. 

_“Cursed box of black magic! You may have discouraged my comrade, but the Fright Night will not be so easily slain by thee! Speak my Liege’s commands and I shall spare your life!”_

Danny was fucking done and clung to Vlad’s shoulder for support in his laughing fit. Vlad growled furiously and sneered into the phone, “for the last time, it’s not black magic! Where did he go?” 

_“The hunter has fled into the Ghost Zone, my Liege – Should I pursue, or continued my quest for a sorcerer that can help free you from the deps of this box?”_

That only made Danny laugh harder and Vlad had to pinch the bridge of his nose, “I am surrounded by fools.” 

_“Do not fret, master. I shall not fail you and succeed in my quest for your release!”_

Vlad ended the call without comment and groaned tiredly. Danny had fallen down to a giggle fit and removed the phone from Vlad’s hand to return it to the coat pocket. 

“C’me on fruitloop, you need a drink and some mindless entertainment.” 

Vlad conclude he might as well just give up on this nonsense and followed into the living room where Danny planted him firmly into the deep couch with a glass of wine in hand. 

Danny jumped in to join him and turned on the television while a duplicate took care of the dishes in the kitchen. 

“There, there,” Danny soothed and couldn’t help but smile at the sulking man, he looked so cute like that, “your minions will get smarter with another decade or two. At least you upgraded from the birds, right? That’s a start.” 

“The vultures are still in function and at my house right now,” Vlad grumbled, drained his glass of wine and deathblossom. Danny refilled it and poured himself a glass to make him company. 

Vlad sighed tiredly and tried focusing on the screen, “what are we watching?” 

Danny watched for a second, “ _The Twilight Zone._ It's pretty good.” 

Vlad frowned a bit at the black and white setting, “seems a bit dramatic.” 

"What? You never watched it?” Dany asked surprised, “you’re the one supposed to have lived in the human world for decades, while I just returned last year after forty years in the ghostly wasteland – and you never watched _the Twilight Zone_!?” 

“I have been busy with more important things than mindless television, Daniel,” Vlad assured self-important and was startled a bit when a loud sound jumped from the screen, “…what is it about, again?” 

Danny shook his head and made himself comfortable in the white couch, “it’s a series of distinct episodes where the people in them are dealing with paranormal, futuristic, Kafkaesque, or just disturbing stuff. Take this episode, it’s called _‘the shelter’_. It’s a bunch of neighbors, the rich suburban types who have known each other for twenty years and all that. They’re celebrating this doctor’s house and making a bit fun of him for having built a shelter under his house.” 

Vlad grunted a bit amused, “a subsidiary company of mine sold a great deal of those constructions back in the 60’s. There’s nothing like fear that can bring people to spend money.” 

“You’re the worst – anyway, the radio suddenly tells them that a bomb is on the way and that people should get to their shelters for safety. The doctor takes his family to the shelter, but then all the neighbors come running with their children and families.” 

The said events occurred on the screen and Vlad watched with interest as the neighbors went from pleading the family in the shelter to downright threatening them to open up and let them in. 

Showing their worst of behavior and taking their animalistic frustration out on each other. Danny snorted as the men suddenly decided to run over to a distant neighbor to get a large pipe from his house to use as a ramp on the shelter door. 

“It’s kinda funny, you know?” Danny noted, “people change when you throw them into strange situation, or maybe they don’t change at all. Maybe that’s just who they are under all the civilities, manners and ties. They become dangerous when you threaten their lives.” 

“Or deny them their deepest desires,” Vlad replied and watched as the women raged over whose children was most worth saving. 

Danny nodded without taking his eyes of the screen, “like when I refused you that Christmas in 1917.” 

Vlad felt his breath stiffen a bit. There was venom in Daniel’s voice despite his words of having forgiven him. It made the old hidden regret swell like a balloon in his guts and threatened to choke him completely. 

Danny tipped his glass to drown the last of his wine and Vlad sighed heavily. Didn’t want this conversation right now. 

“Daniel, please. You’re drunk.” 

Danny placed the empty glass on the coffee table and turned to him with a hard gaze, “no, there was no deathblossoms in my drink. Only yours. Don’t use that excuse on me.” 

“Alright,” Vlad replied and they stared at each other for a moment. 

Unsaid things filling the silence and making the atmosphere pregnant with something close to unevenness. 

Vlad understood now. Had come to terms with the missing piece in this puzzle that was their reunion. How could he have he have let it go past him? 

Daniel’s hurtful look when Vlad talked lightly of the past. 

Daniel’s casual mention of the same to make up for it. 

The long silences where the younger halfa almost seemed to wait for him to pick up the loose ends. 

His childish games to make Vlad unwind. 

The sudden mood swings. 

This. 

Vlad could have hit himself. Daniel had been waiting for him. Waiting for him to make amends and show he was sorry for what he had done to him. 

The silence had returned and Daniel was watching him, but now that Vlad knew wat that look meant, the pressure had become too much. He was expected to apologize for actions he wasn’t true sorry about. 

Daniel would know he was lying even if he did. 

Vlad couldn’t take it. 

“It’s late,” the older male concluded and tried not to make it look like a retreat. 

But there was no fooling around Daniel. Not anymore. 

Vlad had barely left the sofa, before a hand grabbed Vlad’s bolo tie and forced him face to face with the younger. Almost pulled the man of balance, as Daniel was still seated on the couch. 

“I don’t expect you to apologize for what you did to me back then,” Danny assured him with a hallow voice and an old shadow of emptiness filled his blue eyes, “I forgave you years ago and I don’t regret it, but…it would just make so much more _sense_ if you did.” 

Vlad went on his knee before the halfa and took his hands, “Daniel I’m –“ 

“Don’t,” Danny warned and brought the other to silence, “don’t patronize me. You’re weren’t sorry then and you’re not sorry now. I know you’re not. I know that now. You can tell me when you are and not a second before. I’m tired of your lies – do you understand?” 

Vlad didn’t. But in some ways, he regretted what he had done to him – but…if he had never made a move on the boy and just watched from the sideline as he married that Manson woman, he would never have forgiven himself. 

They were meant to be together, always had. 

All Vlad wanted now was to cut the ties to the past and take this second chance without the weight holding him back – it would be better just to live in the present and act as nothing had ever happened – couldn’t Daniel see that? 

See how easy it would be? 

The shadow of old pain clouding those brilliant blue eyes and told Vlad that, no. Daniel didn’t. 

Vlad had always been a man of wordplay, always known exactly what to say and how to turn people and situation to his advantage with his eloquence. How to manipulate the word around him by the sheer power of his voice. 

He had no account of how many times he had fallen into a discussion with the other and brought the younger to silence or anger with his clever word games and tricks. His knowledge and mature superiority. 

But this? 

For the first time in many years, Vlad Masters didn’t know how to talk himself out of a situation. 

That’s why he decided to buy a basket of expensive chocolate and confect for the young Miss. Thornwood, when the house phone suddenly rang through the house without being answered. 

Daniel didn’t move to take it and Vlad wasn’t sure if moving was a wise decision at all, as Daniel still hadn’t let go of the bolo tie. They both continued to sit in silence as the phone rang out and went to voicemail. 

_“Hey It’s Danny, what’s up?…. just kidding! Fooled you sucker! I’m not home and you can leave a message after the tone.”_

‘Beep!’ 

_“Hey, cuz! Its Dani – I was going to ask you to join me and Valerie for the ghost hunt tonight, but then I remembered you have a date! Meaning it’s just girls night tonight and hopefully you’re getting something for a change – haha! I just realized there a big chance you and your date might hear this, I’m so sorry! My cousin is a respectable guy and you better use a condom…. that sounded way better in my head. Gotta go before I make it worse – Bye!”_

The silence that followed could have been cut with a butter knife and spread on toast. Daniel had gone completely red and Vlad cleared his throat in suppressed amusement. 

“Your grandniece seems like a charming woman.” 

“Shut up, fruitloop,” Daniel sneered with a glare, but Vlad could easily detect the lack of sincere malice behind. 

Daniel was flushing the most endearing shade of red and it made Vlad smirk. 

He felt how the balance of control had slowly returned to his side of the weight bowls and the younger halfa’s flustered body language made it so much easier to exploit the circumstances. 

“Hmm, I think I have the answer to your riddle now,” the older male mused and his self-confidence turned his half-kneeling position into that of a looming one as he moved closer. 

“What riddle?” Danny scowled and made the other’s smirk widen. 

“Why you call me a ‘fruitloop’,” Vlad replied smooth as silk, “from what I have seen, your cabins are filled to the brim with it. Your guilty pleasure, Daniel?” 

That only made the blush deepening and Danny twirled his hand around the tie one extra time to tighten it. Brought Vlad closer. 

“And if it is?” 

Vlad’s fangs peaked, “then don’t deny yourself what you want.” 

It only took a second of hot breath against cool and a quiet “fuck it,” before their lips was sealed and Danny pulled him into the couch. 

Vlad didn’t waste time and deepened the kiss with a satisfied sigh. Lean arms and wanting hands grabbed the back of Vlad’s shirt and pressed them flush against each other’s chest. 

Vlad was practically purring by the clear lust he was showed and took the lead. He had the upper hand of the situation until Daniel allowed his tongue inside and something foreigner suddenly made him stop. 

“What?” Danny scowled when Vlad pulled him out in arm’s length with a deeply disturbed expression. 

“What in all sweet pastries name is _that!?_ ” 

It took Danny a second to understand and then he couldn’t help from smirking, “you mean my tongue piercing?” 

“Your _what!?_ ” Vlad exclaimed and Danny sat up with a chuckle. Those 30 dollars had been well spent. 

“Relax, man. Don’t tell me your scared of a little body art?” 

“Body art?” Vlad parroted umbrage and frowned as Danny stuck out his tongue in a childish fashion with a grin, “why on earth would you do that to yourself?” 

That only made Danny shake with withheld laughter. Vlad didn’t know? The man had been spending more time in the human realm and lived far longer than him and he didn’t _know?_

“Well,” Danny stated coyly and exposed his tongue with two fingers, “there pretty much only two reasons one would get a barbell – one; because they’re cool –” 

“That’s debatable,” Vlad scowled. 

“ – and two; because their excellent at tonguefucking.” 

That made Vlad shut up. Now he was the one to blush and cover his mouth with a scandalous hand. 

“Want a demonstration?” Danny teased and moved to straddle him with a flirtatious smile. 

“Yes,” was all Vlad could croak out. 

The other leaned closer and slowly their lips reconnected. Danny smirked into the kiss and teased Vlad’s lower lip to get entrance. Vlad wasn’t sure about this, being an old fashion man after all, but opened up anyway and tried to relax into it. 

The metal was strange at first, but then a shiver of pleasure ran down his back as the little metal nub rubbed his tongue like a hard extension of Daniel. 

Vlad sighed hotly when the tongue moved from his mouth to his jaw and down his throat, teasing him with its pressure against the sensitive skin. 

Danny just grinned into his neck and pushed the tip of his tongue into the hollow of the older man’s throat. Vlad made an incomprehensible sound, half moan half praise, as the metal teased him and the tongue flattened against the skin there. 

Danny pressed him down into the white cushions slowly and dragged the barbell up, pressing it into Vlad’s throat and ran a hand up his dress shirt. 

“Let’s take this somewhere proper, hmm?” Vlad suggested, having a feeling that this wouldn’t stay as a simple make out. 

Danny yelped as the living room disappeared in a cloud of green smoke and was replaced with sheets. Blue sheets. His bedroom. 

“And you know this room is my bedroom because...?” 

Vlad’s smug smile was all Danny needed to know and he scowled, more mad at himself for even question the man’s snoopiness, than Vlad in particular. He had known the man all his life, why did he even bother asking if he had broken into his house? 

Vlad chuckled as Danny returned his work at the other’s neck and Danny shot a little ghost ray up towards the shelf. The teddy was hit head on and turned around. No longer watching them with those judging pearl eyes. 

With his privacy restored, Danny phased Vlad’s shirt of in mild impatience and begun to lick and kissing his way down to the man’s collarbone. 

Listened to the older male’s moans and sweet nothings, played him like a piano, as he experimented with the barbell and used Vlad as a canvas for this sexual act of playfulness. 

Vlad watched him with eyes already going red and spilling with ghostly energy, stroked the black tresses affectionally like he had done so many times before, but never could get enough chances to. 

Danny had ones been shy in bed, but the eyes that returned the red stare was far from innocent and he was all but bashful as he eye-fucked the man, trailing lower and lower. 

Vlad’s breath grew shallower as the piercing came up to twill around his nipple and his grip in the long hair tightened. 

The length was unfamiliar between his long fingers, but Vlad had never had more control of the other’s head before now and experimented with this new addition to their love life. 

Danny groaned heated from the shift between pulling and soothing his hair and Vlad could help but grin at that. 

Daniel always had liked it rough. 

The barbell pressed against ribs and counted them one by one on the journey south. Danny pressed a hand to Vlad’s bulge and felt the old known heaviness of it, the familiar feeling and scent of his lover making him relax. 

He knew every curve, every muscle, the spots that could make the man keen and how to make him sing. The control of the act Vlad was giving him made Danny go softer. Ease into it and take his time. 

The action made Vlad shiver and his hands roamed and stroke Daniel’s body to explore this new game. 

Danny watched him roll his head back over in ecstasy as the tongue dipped into his naval and rotated the cold metal nub. 

In his half-dazed mind, Vlad wondered if the metal was cold due to Daniel’s element or if the metal was generally un-heatable despite resting in the warm flesh. 

The barbell rolled over the curve of his hip and got closer to the hem of his slacks, but never close enough. The mix of cold metal on a heated tongue left a maddening brand on the skin and confused his nerves in an enigma of pleasure. 

“Daniel, please…” Vlad groaned, squirming under the other’s slow ministration and got a humored glance in return. 

Danny could already tell that the man was more than just sensitive to it and moved on to press even softer kisses around the hem of the slacks and ripped the belt of in a sharp move. 

Vlad replied by phasing the younger’s purple tie of and Danny made a show out of opening the other’s expensive pants with his teeth. The display made Vlad chuckle and it infected the hardworking halfa who couldn’t stop from grinning either. 

“Quit it, I can’t pop buttons if you make me laugh like that,” Danny warned and Vlad restrained himself by biting his lip. 

Satisfied, Danny unzipped him slowly and ended all his further hardship by simply phasing the slacks of in a swift motion. 

“I see you never lost the fangs,” Vlad commented with a smirk, “they suit you.” 

“You just like them because we have them in comment,” Danny smirked and phased of the rest of their cloths, “didn’t like them at first, tried wearing a brace to correct the teeth, but that didn’t work out. I gave up on them, but they look pretty wild with the barbell.” 

Vlad just hummed, didn’t deny it. Danny smirked by the hungry look Vlad was giving him and ran a hand down his own body with flirting eyes. 

Vlad swallowed as Daniel crawled closer slowly and had the long hair fall down his shoulders as a waterfall of ink. Vlad didn’t have that much patience and leaned forward to recapture Daniel’s lips, pulled him into his lap and held him tight. 

He tangled his fingers into the long hair and pulled at it gently to make Daniel offer his neck for Vlad’s kisses and demanding teeth. Daniel moaned and rolled his hips into his for friction and both breathed labored into each other mouths. 

The sweet taste of deathblossom, Daniel, and sex rolling on Vlad’s tongue. Vlad groaned heated when those fangs nipped at his throat and added an edge to the experience that hadn’t been there before Paris. 

The hand not securing the long tresses, went to roam the younger’s naked body and found peace in the beloved curves, the dip of muscles and smooth expansion of cool skin he knew all too well. 

Daniel mewled and bite him teasingly, as Vlad grabbed his ass, squeezed the plum flesh and pressed him down on his erection. 

Vlad could already tell he was developing a new fetish as those fangs digged into his shoulder and turned them around in a swift motion. 

Daniel yelped as he hit the soft mattress and grinned by the sight of the halfa crawling over him to follow him to the headboard to settled between Danny’s legs. 

Both groaned as the gap between them vanished, their erections grinding together and Daniel spread his legs to get him closer still. 

“C’me on,” Daniel whispered in his ears and bite the lobe, “show me how much you’ve missed me.” 

Vlad growled possessively at that and bite the pale shoulder to hold him down. A delighted shiver ran through the lithe body offered to him and Vlad felt an old satisfaction by knowing he still held such power over his soulmate. 

Daniel moaned openly, spread his legs further as Vlad reached down to close his hand around the weeping member. Nails digging into the skin and made the younger writher impatient. 

Daniel gripped his shoulders for something to hold unto and produced the most beautiful sounds as Vlad began to rub his length and ran a thumb over the head. 

Lust clouded Daniel’s eyes and they slowly shifted from human to ghostly, a new sight of pale blue and green watching Vlad with lidded eyes and flushed cheeks. Vlad wanted to make those eyes his possession, make Daniel his again. 

All of him. 

But this time it would be with body and soul. This time he would get what had always belonged to him. This time he would get it freely. No threats, no cage and no humans between them. Just them in a bedroom with stars on the ceiling. 

“Arhhh yes…arhhh! Arhhhh!” Daniel groaned through clenched teeth as Vlad started to rub him more firmly, ran his hand up and down the pulsing shaft and added a fast pace. 

The younger buried his head in Vlad’s shoulder with a hiss and rolled his hips to meet Vlad’s strokes. The sound of his panting and desperate pleas in Vlad’s ear made him stroke harder, the length now slick with precum. 

Nails bite into his back and Vlad growled in reply and relished in the sweet mix of pain and pleasure. 

He let go of the member and pressed their bodies together, the motion making both of them gasp in a heat of overloaded senses and every nerve sang with stimulation. 

The nails in Vlad’s back drew angry red lines down his sides and grabbed his hips to keep him stalled. 

Vlad hissed and rocked into the other, enjoyed the way they fit together like two pieces of one, the perfectly measured limbs matching each other’s autonomy. 

“Take me.” 

Vlad’s member throbbed painfully at those husky words. Daniel stared up at him with lustful eyes, begging for him. Him and no one else. 

Vlad had no words for how long he had wanted to hear words like that and felt how his face cracked into a large grin. Their lips found each other in a passionate kiss and Vlad reached a hand out to open the drawer in the bedside table. 

He found the lube, didn’t have the attention to question why Daniel had it in the first place and opened it with one hand to coat his fingers. 

The smell of fresh mint spread in the room and Daniel whined wantonly as Vlad hand teased the inside of his thighs and cupped his balls. 

He tensed for a second when Vlad’s digit pressed in, but soon relaxed and returned his kisses even more feverish. 

Vlad sucked on the barbell and pressed a second finger in, listened to Daniel’s moans and sharp breathing, as he stretched the entrance and scissored his fingers. 

“Arhh! F-fuck! Nnnhhnngg!” Danny moaned and rocked in pace with Vlad’s fingers. 

The blue and green eyes shone like cold fire and Vlad suspected his own was acting up as well. As Daniel laid there with hair sprawled on the pillow, lips red from abuse and expression laced with want, Vlad knew that he would never give this up. 

This immortal was his all and everything, the secret to his life and the only person Vlad would ever succumb to. 

He would never stop loving Daniel. Never. 

“Don’t ever run from me again,” he whispered and Daniel stared up at him with shallow breath. 

“Don’t give me a reason to,” Daniel whispered. 

He nodded and Daniel pulled him back in with hand cupping his cheeks and bite Vlad’s lower lip gently. Vlad slid his three fingers in and out and listened to the other’s breath. 

After a few trusts Daniel had stopped clenching his teeth and relax fully, pleaded for him to go faster in his ear. Vlad complied and felt his own erection impatient urges growing. 

Daniel sighed when the finger was removed and grabbed his shoulders for support as Vlad pressed in. 

Daniel shouted and digged his nails into Vlad’s shoulders with a pained expression. Vlad waited for him to adjust, even though it took up all his will not to just slam in. Still he kept from hurting him and first began to move when he received a nod. 

The tight walls swallowed him whole after a single trust and Vlad groaned from the feeling. 

“Danny,” he breathed, the old possessiveness taking hold of him, as he began to trust and soon slam into the other. 

The shouts and wails made him go faster and Vlad wanted him to scream. Scream for him and no one else. 

No Samantha Manson, no Kemberly McLain, and no Nick from the arcade. 

Daniel was going to confess he belonged to Vlad and he was going to scream it to the world on his own free will! 

Daniel arched clean of the bed as Vlad hit his prostate and scream to the stars in ecstasy now that he was aiming for it with every trust. Clung to him for dear life and pushed back from the mattress to meet Vlad’s rough movements. 

“ _You’re mine,_ ” Vlad growled and made the other’s breath hiccups with a hard trust, filling the air with the sound of skin against skin, “say it.” 

Daniel wailed by the fast pace and hugged him with all his might, choked on gasps and tried to find his voice, but failed. 

“Say it!” Vlad demanded and turned Daniel’s face to his with a tight grip in his hair. 

The green in Daniel’s eyes had almost swallowed up the blue completely and he gasped for breath, “I-I’m yours.” 

“Again,” Vlad growled and pinned him to the mattress with a slam. Those tight walls clenching around him and driving him to madness. 

“I’m yours,” Daniel repeated with a growl and suddenly barred his teeth. 

Vlad groaned as Daniel pushed them of the mattress. They hit the floor with Vlad taking the fall and Daniel turned them to straddle him. He rolled his hips into Vlad’s and the man lost his breath from the feeling of being rode. 

“ _And you’re mine,_ ” Daniel sneered with showing fangs and lifted to slam down on him and lifted again. 

Vlad’s eyes rolled back in his head and Daniel rocked his hips into him as Vlad’s hands found his hips to press his entire length into him. 

“Say it.” 

Vlad moaned and threw his head back over with a growl, “I’m yours.” 

Daniel exhaled breathlessly and picked up pace to meet Vlad’s demanding trusts, “y-you’re mine forever.” 

“And you’re mine for eternity,” Vlad retorted with a groan and sat up to pull him down, as he captured his lips. 

Trusted up and into him with honest uncoordinated trusts and braided his fingers into the others, as their hands found each other. 

Danny rolled his hips back and forth, felt Vlad member throb inside of him and Vlad grabbed his cheeks, spread them to get even deeper. Danny moaned without shame and rolled his hips to get the full experience of Vlad inside of him. 

Vlad digged his teeth into his shoulder and slammed into Danny again and again with hard trusts and strong hand on his hips. Danny lifted enough to almost lift of Vlad and slammed down hard. 

He groaned as he felt Vlad’s come inside of him and shuddered from the feeling of his heated injection fill him up. The feeling made him followed over the edge a second later and they collapsed on the floor in a heap of tangled limbs and blue sheets. 

Danny hissed as he lifted himself of and rolled over to rest beside the other. Both breathed heavily for what felt like hours and stared up into the blue ceiling where the luminous stars glowed like an imaginary night sky of collected constellations. 

Danny lifted a tired hand to run through his sweaty hair and looked back up at the bed. He didn’t feel like getting up just yet, but he wasn’t much for sleeping on the floor either. 

A sudden thought made him frown and he returned his stare to the ceiling. 

“…I just realized we’ve fucked in Jazz’s old bed.” 

Vlad snorted, “scandalous. We might as well do it on her couch now.” 

Danny’s mind cooked up the needed images for that and he smiled, “or the kitchen counters – you’re making us breakfast first though.” 

Vlad turned his head to stare at him with a smirk, “and I believed this was you taking me out for a treat.” 

“That was dinner,” Danny reminded him and rolled unto his chest to get closer to the warm halfa beside him. 

He was pulled in to rest on Vlad’s chest by an arm and listened to his human heart under the firm chest with a yawn, “and I’m not letting the opportunity of having you cooking for me pass, your beacon is to die for.” 

Vlad rubbed his face with a grunt, “despite the pun I’m flattered. What time is it?” 

“To late for you to go and now is not the time to change your ways of being a cuddler,” Danny warned and stood up to drag him into bed. 

After a Kleenex or two from the bedside table drawer, the queen-size bed felt like a cloud after the hard floorboard and Danny pulled the sheets over them with a yawn. 

Vlad settled behind him and dragged him close to rest his face in the crock of Danny’s neck as he spooned him. 

“I’m afraid we will have to alter the truce – unless you still feel the need to cut off my hand,” Vlad mused and Danny scoffed. 

“I’m pretty sure I was the one to make a move this time – but I’m a fan of scratching that of the list.” 

Vlad just chuckled at that and Danny snuggled into the other and entwined their fingers. Relaxed into the other and felt sleep come easily. They had done this a million times before, but for the first time in Danny’s life, he could go to sleep without tears or regret. 

He had finally found comfort in the arms of Vlad Masters. 


	43. A time to pretend and a time to believe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vlad found Danny and one thing lead to another  
>  _Vlad turned his head to stare at him with a smirk, “and I believed this was you taking me out for a treat.”_  
>  _“That was dinner,” Danny reminded him and was pulled in to rest on Vlad’s chest, “and I’m not letting the opportunity of having you cooking for me pass, your beacon is to die for.”_  
>  _Vlad rubbed his face with a grunt, “what time is it?”_  
>  _“To late for you to go and now is not the time to change your ways of being a cuddler,” Danny warned and Vlad settled behind him and dragged him close to rest his face in the crock of Danny’s neck as he spooned him._  
>  _“I’m afraid we will have to alter the truce – unless you still feel the need to cut off my hand,” Vlad mused and Danny scoffed._  
>  _“I’m pretty sure I was the one to make a move this time – but I’m a fan of scratching that of the list.”_  
>  _Vlad just chuckled at that and Danny snuggled into the other and entwined their fingers. They had done this a million times before, but for the first time in Danny’s life, he could go to sleep without tears or regret._  
>  _He had finally found comfort in the arms of Vlad Masters._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But thy're forgetting their past  
>  _Vlad dodged the last second and caught Danny’s ecto-blast, before sending it back with more energy and laughed darkly, “you can’t blame me for trying, Daniel.”_  
>  _“It’s Danny!” he snarled and struck to send his fist against the man’s face and hopefully break his nose, but missed in a moment of dizziness and fell into him instead. Plasmius grabbed him and slammed him against the wall, pinning him with his body and locked his hands above his head._  
>  _“No, ‘Danny’ is a sobriquet of Daniel,” Vlad explained and ignored Danny’s struggles to get free, “and really, it’s about time you leave it behind, my boy. It’s too immature for a grown man to use.”_  
>  _“Says you, **Vladimir** ,” Danny scowled and made the older man smirk._  
>  _“Hmm, touché.”_
> 
> And the reward for Danny is still a fact  
>  _One of the ghosts from the neighbor table turned to look openly at Danny with a dark attitude and the halfa poked the ghost next to him with a nod._  
>  _"Got any idea what that guy's problem is?"_  
>  _The ghost snickered, "oh him? He's probably after the bounty on your head. 60.0000 gold pieces for the one that can deliver you alive and unharmed."_  
>  _Danny rolled his eyes, having a pretty good hunch about who the person to place such money on his head was._  
>  _The bounty hunter apparently got tired of staring and moved up to Danny with the rest of the tables watching._  
>  _"So you’re the ghost-man, huh?" the whitehaired ghost asked and smirked behind the little black glasses. Danny guessed the guy had been a scientist or something before his death, based on the lab coat, crazy hairstyle and comical Austrian accent._
> 
> But Danny can make other acquaintances than enemies  
>  _"Hey, kid – stop for a second."_  
>  _The boy pressed the end of his board into the asphalt and stopped as Danny blocked the way._  
>  _"Whazz up, mister?" the Afro-American boy asked freshly and popped something that looked like a blue bubble out of his mouth._  
>  _"The board you're standing on," Danny began and the boy kicked the board to make it flip into his hand._  
>  _"My skateboard?"_  
>  _"Yeah," Danny replied and studied the underside of the board, reading all the little stickers and tags curiously, "how do you ride it? How does it work?"_  
>  _The boy gave Danny an odd look, "...why ya asking?"_  
>  _"Hey, I'm just curious," Danny defended and shrugged, "never seen one before and got interested. Does everyone ride skateboards around here?"_  
>  _The boy rocked on his heels – gummi shoes, not leather, Danny noted._  
>  _"I'm actually not s'pose to chat with strangers, mister – and Halloween isn't until six months, ya know?"_  
>  _Danny looked down himself and got the point._  
>  _"I just got back from a long travel," Danny admitted lamely and the boy shrugged._  
>  _"Whatever – Gotta go before my homeboys gets trippy."_
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey people :D  
> here you go - your weekly dosis of pompous pep :)  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1986, Danny Fenton’s house, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_

Danny was used to wake up around noon on a normal Sunday. 

Today seemed to follow same procedure, the alarm clock said 12:23 and it was Sunday alright. If he remembered right, he wouldn't have to go to work before his late shift later tonight. 

What wasn't in the sphere of normalcy and not exactly a normal part of his Saturday routine however, was the sudden awareness that the other half of the bed was empty. Danny turned with a tired grunt and found no one beside him. 

The tangled sheets testified to the memory of last night and Danny knew he hadn't made it up. The soreness of his backside could only mean one thing. 

Danny waited patient for the regret or disappointment in himself to catch up with him. Waited for that cold bucket of anger that always followed after a night with the other halfa – but to his light surprise…or possible relief? Danny felt no regret at all. 

He just felt hungry – which was normal, but not that telling in this situation. 

Danny stared up at the ceiling for a time, tried to figure out what he felt and if what he felt was a good thing or not. Last night had been a rollercoaster of emotions and old scars, but somehow, he and Vlad had ended up patching more up than tore apart. 

Danny had been oddly in control of it all. Had been the one to state how he felt and wanted things to be between them. 

That fact that Vlad might have seduced him nevertheless was another thing entirely. Danny wasn’t going to wonder about that for long. He was to old to deny he missed the other. 

To tired to pretend he hadn’t wanted Vlad Masters in his bed and felt good about being fucked hard into the mattress. 

No, Danny decided stern and sat up with determination, he wasn’t going to regret this, and he wasn’t going to go back on Vlad now. 

He had taken the man back – Vlad apologizing or not – and he was going to stick with this decision like a grown up and man in control of his own life. 

With that refreshing thought in mind, Dany rose to greet the day and stretched with a sigh. Relished a bit in the sweet pain already fading. It was that kind of pain that made you feel spent and content, but it annoyed him a bit that Vlad hadn't stayed. 

It wasn't like him, or at least that was what Danny believed. Maybe Vlad had changed in more ways than he knew of. He suppressed the nagging disappointment in favor of the need for a bath and took a quick shower before going downstairs in a bathrobe. 

Only to be meet by the smell of breakfast and the sight of a fully dressed Vlad in the pink apron. 

"Morning, Daniel," he greeted and flipped the bacon on the pan with a smile, "still a heavy sleeper I see." 

Danny hid his surprise by moving up behind the man and locked his arms around his waist, "smells good." 

"Yes, someone requested breakfast on the bed last night, but now that you're awake the table would prove far more suiting," Vlad replied and couldn't help from smiling at the other’s affection and then smirked, "you're not wearing anything beneath –" 

"No," Danny smiled and Vlad turned around to pull him in for a chaste kiss. 

Danny put his arms around Vlad's neck and forgot the world around him for this simple moment. He couldn’t help but giggle at the tickling Vlad’s goatee was giving him and Vlad smiled, hands already past the bathrobe and making Danny forget all about breakfast. 

They both stopped when burned bacon made them turn to look at the pan and Vlad hurried to turn down the heat and move the bacon to try and save it. 

“ _Oh cheeselogs_ , do you have more bacon stored somewhere?” 

Danny opened the fridge and threw him a new pack, “sure, but here’s an idea – we go back upstairs and eat late brunch instead? Sounds good?” 

Vlad caught it in the air and opened the plastic with a head shake, “someone’s impatient, eat your breakfast and wait like a good boy.” 

“And if I’m not a _good_ boy?” Danny teased, but sat down by the prepared table nevertheless. 

Vlad carried the pan over to divide the eggs between them and leaned over him to kiss his temple. 

“Then maybe I will have to punish you,” he whispered into his ear with a feral grin. 

That made a delightful shiver run through the younger’s neck and he bit his lips. 

Vlad smirked and lifted Danny’s face with a devilish voice, “but you would probably enjoy it too much.” 

He would. Funny how things had changed. He could almost hear his seventeen-old self scream at him to stop, but the eighty-year-old Danny Fenton didn’t care. The time were a-changin, as they said. 

And Danny welcomed the change. 

Something from last night made Danny look up and he send the other a long glance. Vlad noticed as he sat down and took a sip of his coffee with a raised bow, while a duplicate took care of the beacon by the stove. 

“Something’s one your mind, Daniel? Other than me, that is.” 

Danny chuckled, the man wasn’t wrong, “you called me ‘Danny’ last night.” 

Vlad seemed surprised, “hmm, I did, didn’t I?” 

“You’ve never done that before.” 

Vlad twilled his fork in thoughts, “I have always preferred calling others by their full name. Nicknames have a habit of undermining names, if not the person.” 

“And still you call yourself ‘Vlad’ instead of ‘Vladimir’.” 

“Touché,” Vlad replied with a chuckle and let the duplicate serve them the new bacon. 

Danny shrugged and bite into a hashbrown. None of them realizing they’d had this exact conversation before in a mansion with a broken window many years before. 

“I remember you once said ‘Danny’ wasn’t suitable for a grown man.” 

“Yes,” Vlad admitted and leaned over to dry some crumbles of Danny’s lip with a thumb, “but you seem to have taken up the chance of reliving your wild teenage years, so I suppose the nickname’s appropriate. And you respond to it so nicely last night.” 

Danny replied by catching the thumb with his lips and bite it teasingly with husky eyes. The man’s smile stretched when the tongue came out to play. 

“You’re done?” he asked with an underlining tone of want and Danny took his hand to kiss the pulse. 

“With breakfast? Yeah – With you? No.” 

That was apparently all Vlad need to hear and Danny yelped, as Vlad turned him intangible and pulled through the table and into his lap. 

Hot breaths were released loudly the second they reconnected, and Danny could already feel the desire for the man sending his nerves into haywire, as Vlad began to attack his mouth. 

A muffled moan escaped Danny’s lips only to be swallowed by Vlad and hands tangled in silver and raven-tresses, as Vlad pushed apart plush lips with his tongue to grant himself access. 

The uncertainty of the barbell from yesterday had disappeared like dew in the sun and Danny had to remind himself that he didn’t need to breath to survive, but gasped nevertheless by the other’s merciless ministration. 

Vlad groaned his name as he pulled the lithe figure closer to him as he started kissing down the pale neck, causing Danny to gasp and moan against him in sweet ecstasy. 

Danny didn’t know how or gave a damn as he was suddenly being pressed up against the kitchen wall and was lifted by strong arms to hook his thighs around Vlad’s hips. 

He could already feel the hardness of the other halfa against him and Vlad ripped down the bathrobe to get access to Danny’s flustered chest. 

“And you call me wild,” Danny murmured into the elder’s silver hair, as he dug his fingers into the strands and pulled his head closer. 

Vlad just replied with a husky grunt and continued to nip and suck at the younger’s neck, making him gasp and writhe against him. Danny was turning to putty in the other’s arms, but didn’t really care. 

He wanted this, craved it. A desire in him he had believed long dead had come back to life and it craved this illusion. Craved this sweet bubble of belief that was their reunion. There was no place for the past in this bubble, no time for old scars. 

He needed it, without thought of tomorrow. Danny had needed to be loved again, to be with the only other being on this planet to know him truly. 

He yelped when he felt a sharp pain above his jugular and the following feeling of a tongue running over the puncture wounds. 

“Really? You’re gonna drink my blood now, Mr. Dracula?” Danny groaned and tightened around him as Vlad sucked his neck, teased the skin with his tongue. 

Vlad didn’t take his scolding for good and found Danny’s lips to make him taste himself. Danny had to admit there was something arousing about it and could already feel his neck patching itself up. 

Danny moaned wantonly as Vlad pressed him roughly into the wall and brought them impossible closer. Danny uttered a series of noises and grinded against the man to get some friction. 

Vlad grinned with red eyes and bit his earlobe with a low voice, “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed that sweet voice of yours.” 

Danny was going to make a snarky remark, but Vlad only had to grind into him to make Danny moan and spilling wanting groans. Sweet music to Vlad’s ears. 

“And I believed the couch was our next destination,” Vlad smirked and Danny rolled his hips into him with a hiss. 

“Forget the couch, just fuck me now, fruitloop!” 

“Such language,” Vlad replied and slipped a hand under the bathrobe to pressed a finger into Danny with a chuckle, “but if you insist.” 

Danny groaned by the intrusion and clung to the man, as Vlad pulled and pressed his finger in and out. Danny lost himself to the friction and began to move in pace with him, made Vlad burry his head in his shoulder as Danny pulled him closer with his shaking arms and strong thighs. 

“Faster,” Danny breathed and scrunched his eyes together when Vlad added a third finger, “aarg, fuck! GHnnnnngh! AgHhhHHH!” 

Vlad played him like a fiddle and stroke the spot inside the younger he knew would make him see stars. Felt his erection throb, as he received a sequence of moans, groans and pleas in return. 

“Fuck! Just take me already, you sadist!” Danny hissed and Vlad just smirked at him. 

“What’s the magic word?” he asked, clearly having the time of his immortal life. 

“ _Please_ ,” Danny groaned, not going to fight him when all he wanted was Vlad to shut up and get inside of him. 

If Vlad got off from this, then he might as well enjoy himself for all Danny cared and he shivered from the hollow feeling as Vlad removed his slick fingers. Danny suddenly realized he hadn’t seen or brought any lube, but still had been prepared somehow. 

The slight smell of ectoplasm made him aware that Vlad had used the ghost trick. Back when Danny had lived with the fruitloop and Vlad had taken him when he wished, he had used to draw ectoplasm to the tips of his finger and used it as a natural lube on Danny. 

It had revolted him back then, but now he was just glad Vlad wasn’t going to take him dry. That would have been a no go. 

Vlad released himself from the slacks and pressed his hot length into Danny with a satisfied sign. Danny turned his head back over with a moan by the feeling of natural gravity bringing him down on the man’s dick without mercy and arched his back. 

Vlad began to trust into him and Danny pressed him closer and buried his face in his neck. Vlad added pace as he grabbed Danny’s thighs with both hands and fucked him into the wall. Making Danny scream and tighten around him. 

They both made an effort to keep up the pace and Danny moved downwards, while Vlad trusted up and into him. 

It was all lips and tongues and fangs from there, as Danny violently kissed Vlad and they stole each other’s breath. Both groaning into the open and panting mouths, fighting to get to the edge with fast trusts and rolling hips. 

Danny digged his fingers into the silver strands, messed up the neat styling and sighed shakily into the kiss when Vlad handed him a deep groan in response. 

He rolled the barbell against Vlad’s tongue and battled for a dominance that he didn’t truly desire, but still fought for out of old habit. Vlad’s length pressed up and into him, making Danny see starts, as the weight and heat pressed against his stomach. 

Filled him out and jabbed his prostate against and again, till Danny couldn’t breathe. 

Danny’s thighs began to tremble and his voice shook, “I’m almost there…” 

“Then come for me, Danny,” Vlad gasped and slammed into him, making them both come. 

Danny’s shout was muffled as he had bit into Vlad’s shoulder and they both rode out the orgasm, before Vlad’s lowered them both to sit on the floor. Both heaving for breath and resting their foreheads against each other. 

Danny opened his eyes and found midnight blue staring into his. Slowly they came down from the heights and Danny suddenly looked down and almost lost it. 

“You’re still wearing the apron – pffffff!” 

Vlad looked down and seemed a bit taken back by the fact that he was still in the pink apron. Now needing a bit of cleaning. They both did. 

Vlad just shook his head and ran a hand through his hair to get it back under control, “you sure know how to keep me alive, badger.” 

“Aww, did I wound your pride, fruitloop?” Danny teased, “you make it look sexy though. Maybe I should ask Dani to give us a matching pair for Christmas.” 

“Hmm, or maybe bathrobes, you look ravishing in this one,” Vlad added and smirked at the sight of Danny. 

The bathrobe was more of less hanging half tied around his hips and exposing him in the most arousing way. Danny rolled his eyes by the hungry look he was giving. 

“Can you maybe chill?” he asked with a light grin and Vlad scoffed. 

“How about maybe you chill?” Vlad replied, clearly not used to the slang and Danny couldn’t help from laughing at him. 

His fun was short lived when Vlad teleported them both and Danny shrieked like a girl as the other turned on the showerhead. 

“Arrgh! That’s not what I meant!” Danny scowled, as he pushed the wet hair out of his face and was meet by a pleased smirk, “you’re a freaking fruitloop, you know that, right?” 

“As long as I’m your fruitloop,” Vlad retorted. 

Danny couldn’t stop himself from producing a soft smile by that and leaned forward to seal that with a kiss. Both was drenched before the water turned warm and continued to exchange tender kisses on the shower floor. 

Holding each other close without a care of the water or the world.

   
 

It was long past noon before they finally got out of there to dry up and Vlad called his driver to bring him some clean cloths. 

“What’s with the bolo tie, by the way?” Danny asked as he watched the man dress and Vlad secured the tie neatly. 

“I took the opportunity to wear something else than a tie,” Vlad explained calmly and secured a matching red handkerchief in his breast pocket, “I used to wear something alike a bolo tie before you were born. Fashion is a circle, my boy. Nothing stays old for too long.” 

Danny snorted at that and placed his feet at the coffee table, “and here I had hoped to escape breeches and woolen knee socks.” 

That made Vlad chuckle and Danny rose from his seat. Adjusted the others suit and dusted off for the man’s shoulders while Vlad looked down at him with a smile. 

“There,” Danny said and looked at the suit clad man, “now you look like a fruitloop again.” 

“You’re such a brat,” Vlad mumbled and pulled him in for a kiss. 

Danny put his arms around Vlad’s neck and allowed the man to pull him in. None of them really cared that they had been inseparable for a little over 24 hours and had been practically glued to each other like some horny teenagers in heat. 

But they couldn’t help it. 

There was an underlining need in this desperation for the other’s touch and comfort, that none of them could explain. It was as if the 69 years they had wasted on bitter fights and painful separation had to be made up for. 

As if these kisses and caresses could make up for it and sooth all the hurt and pain the past had built its foundation on. 

Vlad’s shirt had ended on the floor when the doorbell suddenly chimed and Danny looked up in surprise. Vlad turned his head to recapture his lips, “don’t.” 

Danny ignored the bell and eased back into the kiss, but whoever was ringing the doorbell wasn’t ignored that easily and rang the bell more persistently. Danny phased out of Vlad’s hands with a sigh and walked for the door. 

Vlad cursed the intruder, as he followed him and made ready to overshadow the person behind the door if needed to make this short. 

Danny opened the door and found a dark skinned teenage boy on the other side. 

“Sup, Danny. Ready?” 

Danny slapped the side of his head, “shit, I totally forgot. I’m sorry, Ethan, I totally washed it out the drain. How could I forget it’s Sunday?” 

Ethan looked past him and Danny became aware that Vlad was standing behind him and probably looking a tad suspicious with his shirt missing and debonair demeanor. 

Danny opened the door a bit wider and grinned a bit sheepish, “uhm, this is Ethan. He’s one of Dani’s students and helps me practice on Sundays. Ethan this is, Vlad Masters, he’s my….uhm…actually, he’s…” 

“An old friend visiting from out of town,” Vlad said and exchanged a hand shake with the teen. 

Ethan didn’t show any signs of finding this whole conversation strange, but the kid was pretty lax about anything and chewed calmly on his bubblegum. 

Danny had known the kid for little over a year – Ethan was even the first human Danny had talked to after he returned from the forty years of solitude. 

Danny had been surprised to see the kid again when he had gone to get Dani after school and the kid had come to the arcade almost every day ever since. Ethan was a cool kid in Danny’s opinion and at times almost a bit to laid back. 

As Ethan stood there and just chewed without a care, Danny doubted the teen would even had batted an eye, if they had been completely naked and covered in hickeys. 

Danny tried fixing his hair with a rubber band just to make it less messy and Vlad unwrinkled his own slacks without a word. Cleared his throat. 

“So, Ethan” Vlad stated business like, “what is it that you help Daniel practice exactly?” 

Ethan popped a bobble and shrugged sloppily with a drawl, “just skating, dude. I help him getting real wicked on a board and he pays me with some schweet tickets down at the arcade. Pretty rad deal if ya ask me, old man.” 

Vlad looked as if he was going to scold the boy for commenting on his age and Danny hurried to save the teen with a smile. 

“Hey, Vlad – how about I train with Ethan here for an hour and then we could go out and get something to eat before my shift down at the arcade?” 

Vlad was still pissed but seemed tempted by the offer and huffed, “I suppose that’s in order. I will go do some work while you two practices then.” 

Danny looked after him as the man went back inside and sighed before turning back to Ethan with a more uplifting expression, “I go get my kicks and board.” 

Vlad, now dress but still pissed, pulled out his phone in the living room to make a few business calls and watched from the window, as Daniel and the little brat positioned themselves on the road to roll on their skateboards. 

Vlad couldn’t for his life understand why Daniel would waste his time on something this mundane, but continued to watch anyway as his secretary took the phone. 

_“VLADCO and DALV corporation, this is Masters’ office speaking.”_

“Afternoon, Donna, direct me to the line of the Shanghai deal.” 

_“Mr. Masters!”_ Donna replied a bit surprised, _“I understood that you didn’t want any calls during your vacation, sir?”_

“I have an hour to spare. Have the representative from Axion Lab contacted the board of directors from Polly Inc. yet?” Vlad asked and leaned against the window frame. 

Daniel was watching the teenager making some kind of trick with his skateboard and made ready to do it after. 

_“Yes, sir. They are securing the papers and future schedule for the next year plan as we speak. Do you wish for me to fax the needed papers or would you preferer them waiting for you at your office?”_

Vlad blinked when Daniel used a bench to glide his board on and flipped the board before landing on it again. 

The human teen might not have notice anything, but Vlad could tell Daniel had used his ghost powers to stay lighter in the air. Vlad couldn’t help from smiling into the phone. 

Daniel was cheating. 

“Actually, I have plans of moving my office to Amity park. Prepare to pack down my office and have my belongings sent to Minnesota by tomorrow morning. The key to my new mansion and the address is in the papers I left for you in the left drawer.” 

_“Yes, sir,”_ Donna replied without a complained and Vlad praised himself for having hired the woman. 

“Thank you, Donna. Now, if you could direct me to the board in Shanghai.” 

Daniel was laughing at something the rude teen was telling and Vlad shook his head. 

If he didn’t know the immortal, the sight could easily have been taken as just two adolescents skating by the curb. The way Daniel talked and moved beside Ethan made him fit in perfectly with the youth of this strange time. 

Vlad wondered briefly if Daniel was trying to live like a teenager because of the fun of it, or to make up for the harsh childhood he had experienced. Compared to today, the children of 1900 had been kept under strict conditions. 

The church had filled children’s head with the fear of sin and the home always held punishment for a child staying from the rules of adults. 

If children didn’t leave home to work in the age of fourteen, they were sent to school to get an education far more advance than any normal college schedule Vlad had seen in any modern state. 

Daniel had been speaking four languages and been able to solve higher mathematical problems without a calculator by the time he was fifteen. 

If Vlad had to make an educated guess, he would say Ethan here couldn’t even speak anything but pidgin English, or solve a simple arithmetic without breaking down in tears. 

Just to make it worse, Daniel had lost both his parents before he was seventeen and lived in constant fear of losing control of his ghostly powers or being exposed as an halfa. 

A heavy burden to bear on the shoulders of a troubled young man in a time that predicted children to act as small adults. 

Said troubled halfa had fallen on his behind outside and grinned at himself as his board came rolling back to him. Ethan rolled over to him and helped him back on his feet to show him the right way to jump on a skateboard one more time. 

Vlad caught the design of the skateboard Daniel was sporting and couldn’t help from snorting. 

Danny Phantom’s signature and green flames entwined with blue ice spikes decorated the piece of wood and Vlad was ready to bet his entire corporation, that Daniel had bought it at one of those stores selling Danny Phantom designed merchandise. 

Those stores seemed to have a popularity curve like a roller-coaster, as the town had a habit of calling Phantom hero one week and foe the next. 

Today’s section of news had three out of five newspapers was praising Phantom and his team for saving the town, while the last one called it all a conspiracy from the ghost’s side. 

When Vlad had first discovered that the Phantom name had reappeared in the states, the paper featured the story about the ghost hero had questioned his role as a hero and called him a foe in disguise. 

The question of Daniel’s honor hadn’t bothered Vlad as much as the fact that the same paper had tricked him by having called the halfa “Inviso-bill” until that article. 

Vlad had been searching for any mention of a Daniel Fenton or Danny Phantom during those forty years and never found either. He recalled even having dismissed the option of searching in Amity Park, despise the fact that the city was a natural spot for portals to appear. 

Making it a ghost infected town since pioneers inhabited it back in the 1800. 

A phenomenon that drove tourists to the little backwater town every year and when the talk of a ghost hero had come to his attention, Vlad had taken it as just another ghost wanting attention from the humans. 

_“Mr. Master, are you still with us?”_

Vlad blinked and refocused on the table of Chinese business men on the phone, probably all staring at the speaker to await his meaning on the stock situation. Mr. Lee sounded as if he was seconds away from losing his patience with Vlad and the halfa rolled his eyes. 

“Yes, I suggest that we close of the shipment route to the Russian boarder until January to lower the MayPower rate. It will be easier to buy the subsidiary by next year when the expensive has squeezed them to lower their prizes.” 

The men began talking again and Vlad tuned them out to watch Daniel again. 

He knew he should pay more attention on this deal, having worked for it for over a little over a year, but as soon as the duplicate he’d formed daily to keep up on worldwide newspapers, had read the headlines of Amity News; _**“Danny Phantom saves school children from ghost snake!”**_ all thoughts of deals and power increasing of Wall Street had vanished like dew in the sun. 

Vlad had send a couple of duplicates to his home to pack his needed luggage and handed his secretary a fast note on the way out of his office to go on a vacation to Amity. 

His duplicates had already send his things to the private jet and brought the mansion before he had even reached the airport and the rest was story. 

Vlad was here. He had found Daniel. Daniel had taken him back. 

He had accepted him as his soulmate. 

He felt how that thought made his body relax and all worries vapor into nothing. Vlad had held a lot of hopes for this reunion, but could never have predicted it to turn out like this. 

His smile widened an inch when familiar arms sneaked up to rest around his waist and Daniel rested his head on his neck. Vlad could still see another Daniel practice outside and based on the core signature, he could tell the imposter outside was a duplicate. 

Vlad found Daniel’s hands and began to sway along with him, as he spoke in the phone, “then I’ll say we have a deal in order. If you gentlemen have any further questions or formalities you feel needs an elaboration, please contact my office. Have a good night.” 

Vlad ended the call and Danny walked around him to be in front of him instead. 

“Good night? But it’s not even four yet,” Danny noted and Vlad hoked a hand into the hem of the other’s jeans to pulled him closer. 

“It’s night time in Shanghai, I was closing a deal. I thought you was practicing how to stand on a piece of wood?” 

Danny rolled his eyes, “hey, don't knock it till you try it, Vlad. And you looked a bit lonely and bored back here, so I thought I could keep you company while I learn how to make an Indy grab up that wall.” 

Said duplicate made a trick and stayed in the air a little longer than human possible. 

“Yay, I did it,” Danny grinned and received an amused glance from the other. 

“Using your power to get ahead and tricking a school child? I’m proud of you, badger.” 

“Yeah, I’m pretty much down with the deadly teens,” Danny grinned and noted Vlad’s confused expression, “it means I’m popular with the young people. Get an updated dictionary, Vlad and live in the present.” 

“Keeping a standard and honoring the English language doesn’t make me outdated,” Vlad noted, “I’m in touch with the now, as much as it’s required without it getting distasteful.” 

Danny rolled his eyes, “you have been wearing the same suit color since 1910 and I bet you still have that pocket watch on you somewhere – can you even get spare parts for it anymore?” 

“I can assure you that my watch is still in order. My style might be old fashion and classic, but at least I haven’t flung myself head first into the decay that makes our young generation.” 

“What? You want me to dress up in a shirt, get a short haircut and drink my coffee black?” Danny asked and suddenly snickered, “you know what would be funny?” 

“What?” Vlad asked, and Danny grinned. 

“Imagine if we’re were like those immortals from the books, who can’t keep track of their own memory. That we couldn’t function normal no matter how long we lived and kept mixing our fashion sense with outdated clothing and stumbled through slang without being able to remember if it was still modern.” 

The thought was both horrifying and humoring. Vlad still had moments where he would find himself listening to a piece of music or see a glimpse of something from his youth, that would made him disorientated for a second and make him feel lost. 

But actual memory loss or trouble with knowing what decade he was in had never been a problem. 

“One can only imagine what that would sound like,” Vlad mused, “I suppose that’s one of the reasons I always keep to my snack branded curses, instead of the constant shifting variant of swearwords humans change all the time.” 

Danny chuckled, “yeah, imagine meeting a person cursing like some old broken time record. Like… come forth you bitch, unhand me, you egg-sucking, born of a jackal! Spawn of a cuckold! I’ll maul you word for word, you lily-livered, jive-talking, bloody whackadoo! Consarn you! Foul villain! God’s wounds! Zooterkins! Cur! I bite my thumb at thee, I’ll smite you, you ugly motherfucker, so hasta la bye bye, daddy-o!” 

Vlad couldn’t help from laughing at that and Danny watched him with a happy smile. 

“I need to make you laugh more often, Vlad. It’s a nice sound.” 

That surprised Vlad a bit, “hmm, I’m certain I have laughed more than once in your company, Daniel.” 

“Yeah, but it’s either an Mr. Evil-Kanivel laughter or that arrogant one you always do when you win at life. This one was…more you. The real you.” 

Vlad hummed, thought it over, “well, if you want to hear me laugh like that you will need to stay close to me, badger. You might need to spend every moment with me to hear it again.” 

“And keep _real_ close?” Danny played along with a flirting tone and Vlad smiled down at him with that look in his midnight eyes that promised a heated trip to the stars. 

Danny suddenly blinked and placed a hand over Vlad’s mouth before it could connect with his, “shot! Ethan is leaving and I need to get to work! How could I forget I have the early shift today!?” 

The man’s reply was turned muffled behind Danny’s hand and Vlad removed it with a scowl, “I believe you promised me dinner before you went to work. Just send a duplicate.” 

Danny scoffed, “you have the worst influence ever. You want me to skip work to?” 

“If it means you stay with me, then yes.” 

“No dice,” Danny replied and phased through him. 

Vlad shuddered by the feeling of a cold core gracing his own hot one and tried pulling Danny back in by turning intangible as well, but Danny was faster and phased through the ceiling to get to his room. 

Plasmius teleported into the bedroom a second later and glared at the sight of Danny putting on his arcade uniform. 

“Don’t give that look, Vlad, the girls say it suits me,” Danny joked and dodged as the other tried catching him. 

Danny jumped to hang on the ceiling and Vlad scowled, “this is the second time you’ve asked me out and changed plans, Daniel. I won’t allow you to disappoint me again.” 

“We can just eat at the arcade,” Danny suggested and evaded the red ecto-rope trying to lasso him back to Vlad and ran across the ceiling. 

“I will not eat cardboard pizza!” Vlad stated and duplicated to catch the tricky halfa. 

Danny yelped and jumped into a hastily made portal, and out again back in the hallway. He grabbed his jacket and was ready to sprint for the door, but ended up running directly into a firm chest and get caught by strong arms. 

“Or I could send a duplicate to work while we eat at that restaurant on the opposite side of the arcade?” Danny offered sheepish as he looked up at his captor, “that way I can keep an eye on my duplicate and better control where he needs to be?” 

Vlad’s red glare lessened and he seemed satisfied with the offer, “alright, but I won’t allow you to go on a date with me in that thing.” 

Danny looked down at his orange _Jolly-Joes Arcade_ t-shit where a bright colored piece of cartoon pizza smiled with a game console in hand. 

“Fine,” Danny said and made a sly smile, “but if I’m going to change, then so are you.” 

Vlad got the feeling he was in on a deal he was going to regret. The feeling still lingered even when Daniel had changed into a more formal attire in form of dark jeans and a white dress shirt. 

“Now’s your turn,” Danny said with a dark grin and handed Vlad a pair of jeans. 

Vlad just stared at them, not making a move to accept the offering. 

“No.” 

“I succumbed to your church cloth fetish,” Danny warned teasingly and waved the light blue jeans at him, “the least you can do is keeping up your part of the deal and put these one. I wanna see you in them, c’me on!” 

Vlad made a face of discomfort and took the jeans like they were going to bite him, “ _oh, sugar cookies._ I haven’t worn something like this since I’ve worked on my first automobile in my father’s stable.” 

“Put them on, put them on, put them on!” Danny chanted and Vlad sighed overdramatically before letting go of his black slacks and replace them with denim. 

Vlad took of his suit jacket and rolled his sleeves up to try and even the look. Ran a hand through his hair uncertain. 

“Well?” 

Danny had to control himself not to giggle like some love-struck school girl and twilled a finger, “turn around.” 

Vlad rose an eyebrow over the blush on Danny’s cheeks and did as he was told. Danny admired Vlad’s ass and decided those black slacks was going to disappear from the surface of the earth. 

“From your flustered face to judge, I suppose the jeans suits me,” Vlad said and had his ego feed by the unbashful looks Daniel was sending him. 

If one of Vlad’s deepest wishes hadn’t been the simple act of going out on a date with a willing Daniel, he would probably had taken advantage of the situation and thrown the other on the bed. 

They teleported to a safe hiding spot near the restaurant and Danny praised himself lucky that the homeless man, who usual hung around this dumpster wasn’t around today and followed Vlad into the restaurant. 

The woman at the reception smiled cheerily and seemed to recognize Vlad. 

“Welcome back, sir. A table for two?” 

There was no hidden innuendo in her voice, but Danny couldn’t help but feel a bit exposed beside Vlad. He hadn’t given it a thought, but now that they were out in the open, Danny began to see things differently. 

As they stood there side by side, it was clear that this wasn’t a business dinner or something formal like that. They might could have pass as relatives, but the way Vlad insisted on paying and laid his arm around Danny made that picture fall apart. 

The last possibility was to pose as friends, but the visual age difference made that hard to believe and left them with the obvious. 

They looked like a couple. 

The times had clearly changed since 1927, but Danny knew that even though it wasn’t illegal anymore, the case of homosexuality was frowned upon still. 

Humans had moved and become more open to this suppressed population of the society, but you only had to look at the newspaper comments about Dani and Valerie’s relationship to know that people still felt hostility towards homosexuality. 

Dani had kept her job as a teacher due to Valerie’s control over the city, but Danny doubt that his job at the arcade would be the same, if all the parents of the teens and schoolkids coming there daily, knew about his sexual preferences. 

The arcade could close down and Nick lose his job, if it became know that Danny was seeing another man. Danny felt sorrow by such future aspects and took an unknowing step away from Vlad. 

Vlad didn’t seem to have noticed and Danny looked up at the billionaire with uncertainty, bite his lip. If Danny risked losing a big deal over his sexuality, Vlad was even worse of. 

The man was famous and even though the paparazzi hadn’t discovered his new hiding spot, they would surely find him and follow his every step in a few weeks or two. 

If they began publishing pictures of Vlad Masters’ daily visits and dealings with a Daniel Fenton, and caught them holding hands or even worse – kissing, there would be no end to it. 

Vlad was rich and powerful, but he could lose a great deal of his associates and being blacklisted by several companies. He could even become a stock of mocking and ridiculed. 

If Vlad had taken notice of Danny’s sudden dissociation, he didn’t show, but made a clear statement by placing a hand on Danny’s back and lead him to their table. 

Danny tried ignoring any stares they might receive and told himself those humans couldn’t possible know. 

It wasn’t like they were sporting some bright neon sign above their head saying _“GAY!”_ , but the unease still made Danny avoid all eye contact with the rest of the restaurant. 

He almost stumbled as he hurried to take a seat before Vlad could pull out the chair for him and Vlad acted as nothing and sat down himself. 

The receptionist smiled at them, clearly haven’t noticed a thing (or didn’t show) and promised a waiter would be with them in a second. Danny pulled up his menu to hid behind and sighed tiredly. 

What was he going to do? 

“Daniel,” Vlad suddenly said and pulled Danny’s card down with a finger, “are you hiding?” 

“No,” Danny lied and turned a bit in his chair to hide his entire face behind the card, as a family walked pass them, “just, uhm…there’s a chance Nick might see me. What would he think if he saw me sitting in here and work beside him at the arcade at the same time?” 

Vlad frowned a bit, “we’re shielded by a plant by the window, there’s no possible way he would notice and if I recall correctly, you didn’t seem to have a problem with that arrangement back at the house.” 

“Changed my mind,” Danny chuckled sheepishly, “you were right – should have stayed at the house and send the duplicate to work. How about going home now we’re at it? I could cook for you and we could watch another episode of _the Twilight Zone_. That worked out nice last time, right? Let’s do that and go now – right now.” 

Danny had already moved to leave the table, but Vlad wasn’t one to fool around and pulled Danny back into his chair. 

“Daniel, this may be farfetched,” Vlad began and suddenly scrutinized Danny’s guilty face, “but something tells me you’re ashamed to be here.” 

“What? No that’s _ridicules_ , why would I? – yeah, you’re right…” Danny admitted and let the menu fall to the table. 

Vlad frowned a bit and leaned back in thought. 

“You’re ashamed to be seen with me.” 

“It’s not like that!” Danny hurried to say and leaned forward to keep the conversation between the two of them, “it’s just…you and I don’t exactly look like father and son, if you get my drift. If people knew…I could lose my job – you could lose your companies. Your reputation.” 

Vlad opened his mouth, but the waiter had suddenly chosen to make his entre at this moment and smiled at them with a notepad in hand. 

“Hello, my name is Chad and I will be your waiter tonight. Are you gentlemen ready to order?” 

“Uhmm,” Danny stated lamely and gave the menu a quick look over, “we’ll take the rib steak with baked potatoes and pepper sauce – the meat should be rare. And for dessert we’ll take the cheesecake and a cup of coffee before the bill. Do you have a wine card? There’s only soft drinks on this one.” 

The waiter wrote down a bit stressed and hurried to hand Danny a wine card. Danny looked it over and used his French to interpret what was red-, white wine and port. 

“Okay. We’ll take the Merlot for the steak and the port for dessert. Thank you.” 

The waiter hurried to get their order to the kitchen and Danny turned back to the sight of stunned Vlad. Danny tilted his head. 

“What?” 

Vlad just shook his head and Danny suddenly realized he had order on the man’s behalf and cracked a grin. Their first and only “date” back in New York returning to him and made ideas of payback come easy. 

“Can you hear that?” Danny asked in mocking innocence and acted as if he was listening after something, “that’s right. It’s the sound of the tables turning.” 

Vlad just scoffed, but held some amusement in his glare, “I highly doubt that, badger. I am the one paying the bill after all.” 

“Nah ah, I’m the one taking you out for dinner – that means I get to pay for once.” 

Vlad rolled his eyes, “the bill is hardly one a person with your pay check would want to be responsible for, my boy. How you even manage to afford living on your own in that house with your job is beyond me.” 

Danny blew him a raspberry like it was nothing, neglecting to mention the little detail about the paycheck he got every month from Axion Lab, “phff, easy as pizza pie. And don’t doubt me like that. I’m a proud independent elder who can take care of himself and pays my taxes like everyone else – well maybe except from you. I bet you commit tax fraud for sport.” 

Vlad scowled, but didn’t deny it, “hmm, that’s oddly impressive, Daniel. I would be awfully proud of you for managing on your own, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve planned on taking care of you from now on.” 

“Wow, we have been together less than forty-eight hours and you’re already planning our future?” Danny asked sarcastically and received a modest shrug in return. 

“With our history of life-long courtship I would say it’s on time we settled down, badger.” 

Danny looked down, “it would have to be in secret though.” 

The frown from before returned to Vlad’s features and both looked up as the waiter arrived with their appetizer and served the dark red wine. Both waited impatiently for him to leave and Danny sighed as he did. 

Vlad took his hand on the table. 

“There are plenty of openly gay people in the media in this time. We don’t have to hide,” Vlad said and Danny stretched his lip to a thin line and pulled his hand to him before the neighbor table could notice anything. 

“I know, but look at how they’re doing. I like working at the arcade and hanging out with the Amity teens, Vlad. Are you really ready to risk your reputation and identity to a media storm that will probably last for years?” 

Both quieted down again as Vlad’s phone suddenly sounded and he scowled as he took it. 

“I told you, I’m on vacation.” 

Vlad’s frown deepened and Danny could easily read the man’s body language, despite Vlad hiding it behind an aloof mask. Vlad was pissed off. 

“I’ll be back in a second,” he promised Danny and rose to take the call somewhere private. 

Danny’s ghost hearing informed him that the person in the other end was talking Chinese and Danny recalled Vlad taking about Shanghai earlier on. He sulked and pokes his food without appetite. 

It was almost ironic. He and Vlad had kept their affair a secret for decades. 

Of course, Danny had been against it back then and done all in his power to keep it a secret to hide his shame, while Vlad had been looser about it and just used his power to keep any potential witnesses at bay. 

They had both fought back then to keep it hidden out of each private reason – but now that they both wanted this, it seemed almost impossible to carry out. Danny was annoyed by the thought of having to hide again. 

If they continued like this, he would have to think twice every time he left the house with Vlad and suppress every urge to hold hands or show him open affection outside of a locked bedroom with heavy curtains. 

He would have to act cold in Vlad’s presence around strangers and live yet another double life. Denying himself happiness once again and live in the shadows until the human race decided either to purge all deviants or accept them into society. 

Danny rubbed his temples and watched through the eyes of his duplicate how a bunch of middle schoolers had gotten into a fight over a new game machine and Danny had to break it up. 

The innocent fight between three ten-year-olds suddenly became too much for the duplicate, as a third problem child joined and crackled loudly before phasing into one of the machines. 

The teens screamed as the row of arcade machines came to life and Technus assembled all the stole machinery to a large robot body. Danny dissolved the duplicate in the panic and ran from the restaurant to get outside and find a place to transform. 

That turned out a little harder than expected, as all the restaurants guests flocked around the entrance and windows to watch the ghost tear the arcade apart. 

Danny cursed them silently and ended up just turning invisible behind a plant and showed again as Phantom. 

The crow immediately started applauding for him, but Danny ignored them and phased into the arcade to face the ghost collecting more parts for his suit. 

“Technus, when you get banned from the arcade, it means for life!” Danny growled and the electric ghost on the center screen of the robot grinned wickedly at him. 

“Ghost-man! Behold the upgrade! I Technus version 2, the master of all electronics and gadgets of the increasing marked of technical improvement and –” 

Danny shot a large hole in the robot’s torso with a calm expression and the ghost stumbled back and broke the wall to the alley behind the arcade as he felt through. 

Danny flew after him and groaned loudly by the sight of the damage, “goddammit, now the arcade will have to close until the town hall decides to rebuild it – again!” 

Wires and spare part orbited the ghost and patched up the hole within seconds. The ghost grinned and shot after Danny with renewed vigor. 

“You can’t take me down, ghost-man! Even if you beat me now, there’s always gonna be a game for me to hide in!” 

Danny duplicated to fourteen Phantoms and all of them smirked as they surrounded the paling ghost. 

“Sure, but remember – if you die in a game, you die in real life to.” 

Technus wailed as the duplicates jumped him and the real Danny turned his attention to the ruined arcade to make sure no children had been caught under fallen machines or bricks. 

He was pleased to find only one teen cower in a corner and helped him back to the street. Last time Technus had attacked the arcade, five school children had gotten injured and Nick had gotten a concussion from a brick in the back of his head. 

Danny had been late for work that day and cursed himself ever since. Lucky for him nobody died. 

He returned to the other side of the arcade to find that a group of reporters was trying to get close and get a scoop, while his duplicates had stripped Technus of his electronics and one of them punched the screen featuring the frightful ghost. 

“Come out come out wherever you are…” Danny droned tiredly as he searched the different screens to find the ghost’s new hiding spot, “…like a rock start you’ll never get far…” 

Danny couldn’t help the predatory grin when a screen glitched. He turned the fallen _Pacman_ machine with his foot and stared at the perturbed Technus on the screen. 

The ghost yelped and hurried to run into the labyrinth of the game and find his way out of the screen’s visibility. 

“We can be two playing this game,” Danny grinned and phased into the game. 

The sudden darkened labyrinth of sharp edges towered around Danny and he looked around for a second, before a large yellow Pacman passed him by to his left and went for the cherries. 

Danny had pressed himself against the wall to remain undetected and rose his brows by the size of that thing. 

“I wonder if the ghosts following him will fight me or accept me as one of their own.” 

Danny had played various of other _Pacman_ machines around town and set his insane high score on all of them, but this one was new and fresh from the store. Meaning he didn’t know what could happen in here exactly. 

Danny had actually planned to play it one of these days and set his “DP” as 1# on the high score list, but then Vlad had showed up and the man had proven to be far more entertaining than any machine. 

Danny turned a corner and wondered where all the ghosts were at. As if summoned, one of the large ghosts came down Danny’s corridor and he frowned when it caught sight of him and went for him at full speed. 

When it was clear it wasn’t going to recognize him as a fellow specter (although different races, worlds and design etc.) Danny simply shoot an ecto-blast and saw the ghost explode in pixels. 

The giant bar hovering above him was added 50 points and Danny snickered and continued his hunt. He had reached a score of 8900 points, when he finally caught sight of Technus and Danny collected energy in his hands for a loaded blast. 

“Game over, Technus!” he grinned and fired away. 

Technus didn’t dodge before almost too late and he crackled, as the shot continued down the corridor and hit a ghost instead. The blue figure cracked exploded with a sound of victory and dissolved down the floor. 

“Looks like you just started the boss battle!” Technus grinned and ran for his life. 

“What boss?” Danny asked confused and them winced as the ground shook. 

A giant ghost made its grand entrance and was followed by a court of normal ghosts, all coming directly for Danny. He took a chance and shoot at the boss ghost. The ghost shook from the blast, but didn’t shatter and continued its advance. 

“Well fuck me!” Danny yelped and ran same way as Technus. 

He barely rounded two corners before a blast right in the guts made him hit a wall and Technus loomed over him. 

“Finally! Now I can get that gold from the bounty on your head and buy all the electronics I want!” 

An echoing tap above them, made both look up and behind a large surface of glass, a giant Vlad Plasmius tapped the surface and smiled charmingly. 

_“I’m afraid that bounty has been withdrawal by the offerer,”_ he stated calmly and Technus gawked indignant. 

“What!? But the 60.0000 gold pieces? I have been trying to catch him for months!” 

_“And now you can get a slice of what that feels like,”_ Vlad grinned and phased a hand through the screen. 

Danny yelped as he was picked up by the cloak like a kitten and lifted out of the machine. He fell into Vlad’s waiting arms, now normal size and turned around to watch Technus run from the ghosts on the screen like some unfortunate cartoon villain. 

He was swallowed by the boss ghost soon after and the screen announced the end of the game. Vlad typed “VP” on the high score list before Danny could stop him and the older halfa grinned. 

“That’s for leaving me at the table, Daniel.” 

Danny created a portal below the machine and watched it disappear into the zone before he flickered the man’s forehead, “that’s for leaving the table in the first place, fruitloop.” 

Their scowls didn’t last long and Plasmius kissed him as Danny broke down to a smile as the first. 

“Since the restaurant is closed along with the rest of the street, I believe I will take you up on the offer on homecooked food.” 

“Fine, but then I’m deciding what we’re going to eat.” 

“Pizza is still out of question.” 

“It’s Italian! I can even make it from scratch if that’s what it takes.” 

The two half-ghosts continued to discuss the fine line between junk food and dinner, as they lifted to the air and took off in the direction of the grocery store. 

Unknown to them, the little group of reporters stepped out of hiding and news reporter Lance Thunder tried to save his lush golden locks with a comb as he turned to his cameraman. 

“Did you get that? Please tell me you did!?” 

The cameraman nodded with a thumb up. He had gotten it all.


	44. Danny and Vlad come out of the closet – well, they were dragged out really

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny once intrusted a page to a friend  
>  _Kemberly blinked by the sudden warmth in his voice and then bloomed into a smile, “I’ll love that. Call me when you get back, sheik – by the way.”_  
>  _She pulled him down to her height to kiss him on the lips. Danny caught the sight of Sam turning her head away in anger and smiled as Kember ended the deep kiss and whisper in his ear, “it’s hidden well, I’ll keep it safe until you get back to me.”_
> 
> Skulker betrayed Vlad by keeping Danny's hideout secret to him  
>  _"Skulker,” Vlad greeted with business like voice and almost got his eardrum punctured when Danny yelled into the phone._  
>  _“HE KNOWS, SKULKER! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!”_  
>  _A loud “gasp” sounded from the other end and the following ‘thud’ could indicate that the hunter had dropped the phone on the ground. Apparently, Skulker had fled._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But Vlad had other things to attend to  
>  _Danny felt a light blush spread on his cheeks by a series of photos in a woman’s magazine, showing Vlad from a more casual and less business focused side. Danny turned the magazine sideways to get the entire fold-out page and bit his lip. Vlad was showed seated on a throne with a white tiger in a golden leash by his feet. His hair was a bit messy in a sexy way and his midnight eyes lidded. For some reason the tiger seemed familiar, but the man somewhat took all Danny’s focus._  
>  _“Oh, my god, I hate you so much,” Danny groaned and collected all the papers about Vlad. He had phased them into his mattress and told himself it was for study of Vlad’s comings and goings._  
>  _Assured himself it was to track the man’s movements and not at all admiration._
> 
> And Dani learned about Danny's past  
>  _She flipped a page of the scrapbook. Watched the picture. A tall man with a handsome face standing right beside the bride...Dani's great grandfather maybe? He didn't look like granny though. The aristocratic face and white hair fixed in a neat ponytail didn't ring any Fenton bells of recognition. "Mr. Masters," Dani read, a little bell ringing. Hadn’t her mother once said something about granny being adopted as a young girl?_
> 
>  
> 
> _She suddenly looked at him differently, “you used to date an older man?”_  
>  _Danny nodded, but when shook his head, “dating is a strong word in my case. I’ll say it was a one-sided affair – had to keep it secret and all back in the 1920’s. He didn’t really give me a choice on the matter. Didn’t respect me, although he insisted on it being for my own good when he took me with force and kept me close. He said he loved me, but…it wasn’t love.”_  
>  _“I got over it. We’ve had our ups and downs during the years. It still hurts sometime, but it’s been almost forty years since I’ve seen him now, I doubt that he still thinks of me anymore.”_  
>  _Dani made a confused face, “what do ya mean? If he was older than you he’s got to be dead by now – unless he’s hundred? Do you visit him in a nursing home or something?”_  
>  _Danny realized he had let his mouth run of with him again and grinned sheepish, “uhm…well the things is, he’s a halfa to.”_  
>  _“There’s another half-ghost out there? You got an immortal lover?” Dani asked astonished._  
>  _“Well, more of an archenemy, than lover…”_  
>  _“You have an archenemy!?”_  
>  _“Maybe? I don’t know – a lot have changed and he hasn’t come to reclaim me –”_  
>  _“Reclaim!?” she shouted, “you have an evil halfa lusting for you out there!?”_
> 
>  
> 
> But some things Danny keps to himself...  
>  _“Horns?”_  
>  _Dani looked up from her bacon and egg, a little annoyed by being interrupted during her tale of yesterday’s fight with a new ghost._  
>  _“Yeah, he had horns – but I’m more concerned about those ratings our instruments caught. He’s just as strong as you, Danny.”_  
>  _“You know him?” Valerie added._  
>  _“Maybe, did you get his name?”_
> 
> If you can...  
>  _Their scowls didn’t last long and Plasmius kissed him as Danny broke down to a smile as the first._  
>  _They lifted to the air and took off in the direction of the grocery store. Unknown to them, the little group of reporters stepped out of hiding and news reporter Lance Thunder tried to save his lush golden locks with a comb as he turned to his cameraman._  
>  _“Did you get that? Please tell me you did!?”_  
>  _The cameraman nodded with a thumb up. He had gotten it all._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hey people :D  
> can you feel the ending getting near? The final end of Danny's story comming to an end?  
> Don't worry - you still got around 7 chapters yet before that - happy angst everyone  
> I’m posting a little early tonight because i won’t have internet around midnight  
> Hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA_

“Not what you expected, huh?” Danny asked with a wry smile. 

Nichols had to admit he was right. He hadn’t expected the story to take that kind of turn, but had to admit he wasn’t entirely against it either. 

It sounded awfully sweet and Danny deserved to be loved, cherished and cared for…but was Vlad Masters really the best candidate for that job? The man was clearly going through some redemption arc, but Nichols didn’t trust Vlad could change like that. 

He’ll eat his badge if that man came clean. 

“Do you love him?” he found himself asking and Danny hesitated a bit. 

“I don’t know.” 

“Or you don’t want to know,” Nichols added, making the immortal turn his face away in shame. 

“It’s not that simple,” Danny replied with a voice far more laced with emotion than the officer had heard before, “I wanted things to work out between us. For us to finally end all this…but I don’t think it’s possible. I cant keep giving chances to someone I can’t trust. I don't know how I feel, but I know I can’t love what isn’t real. The Vlad Masters I keep searching for is just a dream. That’s why I can’t do this anymore.” 

_Can’t, or won’t,_ Nichols thought to himself and made his own conclusions. 

“But he loves you.” 

Danny looked up with pained eyes and then shrugged, “he’s never claimed anything else. But he’s a bit of a fruitloop to, always dramatic.” 

A shadow of a smile crept into his features and Nichols regarded him with worry. After all this, he truly wished for Danny to get his happy ending, but the immortal had already spoiled that there would be no such thing and Nichols feared the worst. 

He rubbed his face with a rough hand, the caffeine already leaving his system and grunted tiredly, “I have the suspicion that paradise didn’t last between you two.” 

Danny scoffed with a smile, “there might have been a snake or two. All good things come to an end, right?” 

The officer felt the annoyance return by the immortal’s all to light tone and sighed, “when did the reality fall down on the two of you again? Shattered the rose-colored glasses?” 

“For my part? It took some time, for Vlad? I think he was awakened from the morning after. As you said, reality was still a thing,” Danny sighed and stared ahead with a sense of sorrow, “we weren’t alone in the world no matter how much we played pretend. I think that’s the biggest problem when it comes to love and relationships. People from the outside of that pink lovy-dovy bubble tend to remind you of problems or create them. I should probably have known that Dani was going to be overprotective of me. I had been when Jazz started seeing Dean – it’s all in the genes, dude. Not that she was wrong or anything…” 

Danny rubbed his neck with a sad expression and suddenly looked at the man in question, “you got any family at home? Kids? A wife?...husband?” 

Nichols ignored the last part with a smile, “a wife and a boy in high school. Here – this is Gwen and this is Rick.” 

Danny took the man’s wallet and smiled as he watched the picture of the officer’s blond middle-aged wife and young son. It still surprised Danny how ordinary some people could be. Nichols was just that. 

A middle-aged police officer with a home and family. Probably a dog or cat as well and barbecues in the backyard when the sun was shining. 

Before Danny, Nichols had probably never thought about the possibilities of immortality, ghosts or the possibility of supernatural beings existing in a human world. 

Danny had to admit he was jealous. All he had ever wanted was to be normal. Having normal problems and living in normal dangers. Being a normal human being. 

“They’re perfect,” Danny said with a smile and handed the wallet back. 

Nichols was a little confused by that statement, but guessed the immortal was right. His little family was kind of perfect. Perfectly normal compared to Danny’s tumbling unpredictable life. 

“Thank you.” 

Danny just smiled like the old man he was, “ready to continue? We’re almost at the ending you know.” 

Nichols nodded, “I’m ready.” 

Danny’s smile stayed in place, “it was the morning after when our little world had to come out of hiding. When I look back at it, I think it was for the best. Me and Vlad could pretend all we wanted and turn a blind eye to the past – but there is no fooling around when your life is made up of loose strings. Lose strings will tighten and strangle you, until you either make ends meet or cut them completely.”

   
   
 

_Year 1986, Danny Fenton’s house, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_

_**“Lose strings will tighten and strangle you,** _

_**until you either make ends meet** _

_**or cut them completely.”** _

   
   
 

The sound of Vlad’s heart drummed against his ear. 

Danny had been awake for a couple of hours now, but continued to rest his head on Vlad’s chest and listen to that steady beating that was his human heart. 

Vlad was still fast asleep and when Danny had awoken with the sun, Vlad had remained asleep despite the light and just pulled Danny closer with a grumble. The light snoring made Danny smile. 

The sound of the grown man’s breathing calmed him and Danny inhaled his scent. That deep warm almost smoky scent that was the other halfa. 

Danny shifted in his position on hid stomach between Vlad’s legs and rested his head on his arms. Stared at Vlad with a little smile and followed the relaxed lines of the man’s face with his eyes. 

They suddenly settled by the strong dark eyebrows and Danny ran a gentle thumb over Vlad’s left eyebrow. The man stirred and opened his midnight eyes after a little. Took Danny’s hand and kissed it softly. 

“Morning,” he mumbled and Danny smiled, a bit tired as well. 

“M’ning, Vlad. Ready for breakfast?” 

Vlad stated a clear “no”, by tighten his limbs around Danny and pulling him up for a lazy kiss. Danny chuckled, but couldn’t complain. He focused on Vlad’s eyebrow again and Vlad blinked curious. 

“Something’s on my face?” 

“Have you ever wondered why our eyebrow stayed dark while the portals turned our hair white?” 

Vlad dumped his head back on the pillow with a sign, “Daniel, it’s too early for such observations.” 

“It’s 13:45, fruitloop. Just look at the clock.” 

Vlad did just that and seemed surprised by the fact that they had slept past twelve for the second day in a row. He tried to sit up, but then winced a bit and laid down again. 

Danny hummed, “sore? I didn’t hurt you too much, did I?” 

Vlad send him a humored glance, “regret making me bottom for once, Daniel?” 

Danny just snickered, “nope. But maybe I can make up for the soreness like this.” 

Vlad had barely blinked before Danny had disappeared beneath the sheets and Vlad groaned as the younger halfa licked his length. Vlad shuddered and found Danny’s hair to bury his fingers in it. 

Groaned as his mouth swallowed him hole and made Vlad pant. The grip in Danny’s hair tightened as the younger began to move is head up and down, the barbell teasing the skin. 

Vlad’s throbbing erection made Danny hum around him and Vlad groaned in sweet pleasure. 

“Danny…” 

By the sound of his nickname, Danny moved up and took in the man’s length again, driving Vlad mad and turning him to putty under Danny’s ministration. 

Vlad’s head went back over when the smallest hint of teeth was added and he tightened his grip in Danny’s hair, guided him. 

“Ah, Danny,” Vlad uttered and felt the other keep his hips in check, to keep him from doing anything about that slow pace. 

Danny ran his tongue around Vlad’s member, drove the man to the first sign of the edge. Danny knew this and hummed around him again, making Vlad lose his breath and felt a familiar heated knot form in his lower stomach. 

A feeling that has always been associated with Daniel. 

Vlad was painfully close and utters a series of praises and sweet nothings. Making the other smile around him and adding some speed to help him reach the edge. Danny swallow without a thought as the man came and Vlad sat up to drag Danny to him. 

Danny let him taste himself on his tongue and moaned as the man assault him orally. 

After a trip to the shower and another heated make out under the water, they finally return to the task of getting something to eat and tried to get dressed without ending up phasing the cloth of each other again. 

Now that Danny didn’t have a job (at least not until the arcade was rebuilt) the only distraction between them had turned out to be the essential needs like sleep, food and toilets visits. 

Everything else had been reduced to staying glued to each other – only one obstacle remained. 

Vlad’s phone. 

Both groaned as it rung, and Vlad picked it up with a murdering scroll, “what?” 

Danny caught the equal angry reply in Chinese and Vlad rubbed his temples, “Mr. Lee, the deal is in order. If you have any…that was not part of the original deal, the stock is stable, there’s no reason to believe otherwise…” 

Vlad turned his back on Danny and the younger halfa watched him before losing his patience. Vlad widened his eye in surprise as the brick phone was snatched from his hands and he could only watch as Danny pressed it to his own ear. 

“Vlad Masters won’t be available for the rest of the week, have a good day – or night, whatever. Chao.” 

Vlad send the smug halfa a scowl and Danny returned it with a pleased smirk, “what? You’re on vacation and your vacation thinks you should get over here and enjoy him.” 

Vlad would normally have been pissed by such a move, but Daniel looked extremely fuckable as he sat there on the bed and watched him with those naughty eyes. 

Vlad decided he should allow himself to enjoy his “vacation” and returned to his current task – getting Daniel dressed. Danny grinned from his position on the edge of the bed by the sight of Vlad dressing his feet with socks. 

“I can dress myself, you know,” Danny snickered and Vlad sat up to rest his arm and head in Danny’s lap. 

“So can I, but that didn’t stop you from pulling those jeans back on me, badger,” Vlad smiled and Danny hooked his fingers in the hem of said jeans. Pulling him closer. 

“That’s because your butt looks amazing in them, don’t deny me what I want,” Danny replied and received a hungry grin in return. 

“Then I’ll allow you to dress me a second time,” Vlad smirked and pushed the grinning Danny back on the bed. 

Both halfas suddenly looked up as the door to the bedroom was opened rather rudely. Both halfa froze and Danny could already tell that this was going to end badly. 

“Danny why the hell don’t you take the ph –!!” Dani’s angry scowl turned into a shocked expression and Valerie, who had been right behind her, simply lost her jaw. 

Danny guessed he and Vlad made quite a picture. 

Danny was sprawled on his back with his hand above his head and shirt pushed up to his chin. Vlad was hunched above him with Danny’s thighs around his hips. 

One hand secure in Danny’s jeans, that had been dragged down to his hips to reveal Danny’s treasure trail and a look on his face like a man caught red handed. Both was blushing hard and Danny was the first to address them with a sheepish grin. 

“Hiiii guys….” 

Valerie suddenly remember what privacy meant and closed the door with a slam. Apparently, she had hit Dani with the door, ‘cause bout halfas caught the sound of her complaining and rubbing her nose. 

_“What the hell was that?”_

_“Downstairs now, Dani.”_

Danny hid his blushing face with a painful groan, could already feel how embarrassing this was going to be, and Vlad sat up with an angry scowl. 

“This is going to be interesting…”

   
 

“Well that was interesting,” Valerie said quietly. 

Expressing walking the fine line between dismay and amusement. 

Dani sulked in her own chair by the kitchen table, the whole situation not sitting right with her. 

“I can’t believe this. First, he lies to us about the dragon ghost, then he disappears for days without a word and now he’s sleeping with an old man?” 

“Danny’s an old man to,” Val reminded her, “and Mr. Masters is actually quite the gentleman. And in his forty’s so not that old again.” 

Dani looked up in confusion, “you know this guy?” 

Valerie nodded, “his corporation has made a deal with my lab. VLADCO and the DALV corporation invested a great deal of stocks to help me expand the lab. Now I can go back to experiment with new technology and make research, instead of fighting for recognition and being squeezed by those idiot to the GIW.” 

That sounded nice and all rosy in Danny’s ears. Having seen what all those financing problems had done to her stressed-out fiancé – but that didn’t change the uneasy knot in her guts. 

She didn’t know why, but there was something…familiar about that guy. Dani had only seen a quick glimpse of the man – _all over Danny like some predator, ew_ – but Dani could have sworn she had seen the man somewhere before. 

Seeing him this close to Danny made her feel worried…like she just knew it was a bad thing. How did she know him? How did she know Masters? 

Dani sighed in annoyance, “maybe I’m just disappointed. When he said he had a date, I thought he had finally given Nick a chance. Not run of to fuck Mr. Foxy grandpa.” 

Val snickered, “yeah, I never guessed Danny to be into older men like that. I am sooo never going to let this down. Masters are practically his boy toys. Hah!” 

“I’m not a boy toy!” Danny defended with a blush as he entered the kitchen, having misheard everything. 

His bravado was short lived as the two women turned to him with stern looks. 

“You got a lot to explain,” Valerie said and Dani crossed her arms with a sour nod. 

“A lot, dude.” 

Danny sighed with a scowl, “okay, okay – I’m sorry I didn’t call you. I was just…I was with Vlad okay? I lost track of time and forgot about ghost hunting. It’s not like you two have never run of to take a break either.” 

“Maybe not,” Valerie said unimpressed and lifted a newspaper for Danny to see the frontpage, “but none of us has lied about knowing a certain ghost and jumped into bed with him either.” 

Danny widened his eyes. The crystal-clear picture of Danny Phantom in the arms of a blue ghost with horns, locked in a passionate moment of a kiss, was neatly placed beneath a headline in bold. 

**_“IS DANNY PHANTOM GAY?”_**

Danny could barely speak and just gaped. 

An internal scream running through his head – there was no way he could stop this. Every citizen was bound to have read it by now and if he turned on the tv, he was ready to bet his entire account of yeti gold, that he’s sexlife was discussed there as well. 

The memory of those reporters from the arcade came back to him and Danny felt dread slap him in the face. How much had those reporters filmed? How much had they heard? 

“And now you’re spending the weekend with Valerie’s company partner? Which one of them are you cheating on?” Dani continued, she sounded more curious than angry and Danny rubbed his neck. 

“Listen, I know what this looks like, but I promise I didn’t know if that ghost you two were hunting was Plasmius or not. I’d never seen him with horns before. He sought me out last Saturday night and we just…well we go a while back. A looooong while back.” 

“And Vlad Masters?” Valerie asked and made Danny smile sheepish. 

“We go a while back to…uhm,” Danny squirmed, Vlad’s secret wasn’t his to tell, but he doubted he could come up with a lie that would save his reputation, “the thing is – how to explain?” 

“Allow me,” Vlad interrupted calmly as he phased down the ceiling. 

Both women jumped out of their chair and Valerie drew a gun faster than even Danny’s sight could comprehend. 

“No need to fret,” Vlad assured with his hands up and send them both a charming smile – Valerie more than Dani, as she was the one with a gun to his face and eyes of murder, “Miss. Gray, nice to see you again, despite the odd circumstances. Miss. Thornwood, a likewise pleasure to make your acquaintance. Daniel talks highly of you and I expected nothing the less from a grandniece of dear Jasmine.” 

Dani just gawked, while Valerie scoffed drily, “so you’re a ghost, why doesn’t it surprise me? Let me guess, you buy up the rights to the world’s leading ghost researching organization for the sake of ruining them, aren’t you?” 

Vlad huffed a bit incensed by that and turned her gun from his face with a light finger, “of course not. I admit I prefer to keep an eye on ghost research for the sake of my own and Daniel’s security, but I have no wish of ruin Axion Lab. Rather the opposite.” 

Vlad’s eyes suddenly rested on the frontpage and he lifted it curiously to Danny’s great shame. 

“Don’t look at it!” 

“Hmm, I agree, it’s a bad angle, but I must say they caught the essence of the picture. I had no idea my horns twist like that in the back. I should get them polished.” 

This time it was Valerie’s time to gawk and Dani to regain her speech, “you’re the Dragon ghost!?” 

Vlad just smirked, “this must all seem to odd to you. Maybe it is time for a real presentation, hmm?” 

Vlad transformed with a calm expression and send them a gleaming smile of fangs, “name is Vlad Plasmius. And as said, Daniel and I go a long time back.” 

Danny sighed next to him, “you didn’t have to tell them your secret just because of this.” 

“Really? You expected me to stay a secret to your family now that I plan on creating a life with you?” Vlad asked loudly for both the females to hear. 

“You’re getting _married!?_ ” they asked in horrified unison, making Vlad smirk and Danny jump. 

“What!?” Danny squealed, “I – wait a second, we’re just – !” 

“The only two halfas in existing. It’s only natural that we settle down, having been lovers for almost hundred years.” 

It suddenly clicked for Dani. Why she recognized the man’s name and felt this strange unease about him. The old black and white picture of Daniel Fenton and a Mr. Masters standing next to her granny. 

Danny’s confession of having been forced into a relationship with an older man when he was younger. A man who was a halfa. A man who had been his archenemy. 

A man he had known for almost hundred years. 

“Oh my _god_ ,” Dani suddenly voice and pointed at Danny, “your stepfather has come back to claim you!” 

“He’s only on paper! It was a long time ago!” Danny hurried to yell, jumping to defenses and Vlad cleared his throat with some anger in his voice. 

“Don’t be rude. Being Daniel’s caretaker in the past has nothing to do with our current relationship.” 

“I’ll show you rude,” Dani sneered and was stopped by Danny. 

“Dani, please, don’t make this weird.” 

“But he abused you as a child!” 

“Alright, okay, wow!” Valerie uttered in a disturbed tone and buried her hands in her hair with a deadpan, “okay, give it to me straight. My business partner is a half-ghost interested in ghost research for the sake of keeping halfas safe?” 

Vlad nodded. 

“And you two have known each other for centuries and are starting dating?” 

Both nodded. 

"And Vlad used to be your caretaker when you were a child – and abused you!?” 

“It’s a long story, and I was 17 just to clarify,” Danny sighed, “there has been a lot of water under this bridge and we have crosses and burned a few over the centuries. I admit, me and Vlad didn’t have the best of relationships at first, but really – we’re at peace now and can’t you two just be happy for me?” 

“Suuuuure,” Dani replied sarcastic and turned on the tv, “you two are a sensation after all.” 

Danny groaned as a clip of him kissing Plasmius popped up and the two news reporters raised their brows for emphasis. 

_“ – the question that has been one everyone’s mind since yesterday’s scandalous reveal of the ghost hero’s love escapade – is Danny Phantom gay?”_

Tiffany Snow gleamed at the screen and shook with her red hair, while Lance Thunder nodded dramatically, _“the city of Amity Park and devoted fans of the ghost hero has been debating all morning and even experts have joined the panel.”_

They turned to an old man and the screen announced him as an expert on ghost behavior. Valerie didn’t recognize him and tilted her head. 

“He’s not one of mine, where did they get this antique?” 

_“And you’re an expert on ghost behavior?”_ Tiffany asked and the old bushy man nodded severely. 

_“Yes. I’m an expert in the organization of The Guys in White, the most noteworthy ghost research in the world.”_

“Lies,” the Phantom team droned in unison and Vlad snorted. 

_“And how will you explain this scene? Is the ghost hero homosexual? Do ghosts even have gender? Is this Dragon-ghost a female in disguise?”_

Danny turned it off as the two began talking about ghost genitals and covered his face in shame, “this is even worse than the normal hate on my ghost-half. I feel bad for those Phantom stores.” 

“Don’t be,” Valerie soothed, “there’s more in favor, than against you at this point. The teens of Amity seem pretty relaxed about it and someone has even made graffiti of you two on the side of Town Hall. It’s _very_ tasteful for graffiti art.” 

That didn’t help Danny the least and what especial didn’t help was the fact that Vlad seemed humored by it all. 

“Is this funny to you or something?” Danny scowled and Vlad just chuckled. 

“It’s just the irony, remember when you thought the worst that could happen was people finding out about our human half’s relationship?” 

Danny just glared at him. He was right, but not helping. 

Dani watched them with some skepticism. 

Even though Danny seemed angry with Vlad, there was no real venom in his glare and the man seemed to know this to. They continued to bicker like some old couple and from what she had understood, they were. 

Those two had been lovers for centuries. 

Still this didn’t bode with her. Danny had never mentioned Vlad by name or as much as mentioned him before or since the day he came out as gay to Dani. If Danny was so fondly of this halfa, then why did he never talk about him? 

Keep a photograph of him in plain sight? 

If those two really had worked out their relationship since the time of abuse, then why did she have the feeling that all of this was wrong? 

_I got over it. We’ve had our ups and downs during the years. It still hurts sometime, but it’s been almost forty years since I’ve seen him now, I doubt that he still thinks of me anymore._

Dani frowned. The Danny she knew was always smiling, a joker and carefree. But that morning he had looked at her and spilled those confessions with eyes heavy with sadness. 

Alone the fact that Vlad had abused him as a teen was enough to make Dani dislike the man, no matter their relationship now. 

Dani's own parents had always taken their frustrations out of her. Made her believe it was her fault they had been forced together in the first place. The unwanted child that made their life miserable. 

Despite that, she had stilled missed them after she had moved in with granny. 

If her granny hadn’t helped her sort her feelings out and told her to stop idolizing them just because they were her parents, she would probably had moved back in with one of them and believed herself to deserve their hurtful treatment. 

Thank god for granny. 

But Danny hadn’t had Jazz Fenton to guide him out of his abuse. From what Dani could understand, Danny had been alone until he reunited with his friends in New York. Other than Dani…had Danny ever talked to anyone about this? 

She watched Vlad for a second. Saw his arrogant smile and holier-than-thou pose. Remembered the vampire smile he had flashed back when they had fought him, Valerie and her. 

He had seemed almost bored of them and first showed interest when Danny had been mentioned. 

“Danny, can I talk with you in private, please?” Val suddenly said and Danny sighed before walking after her into the living room, but not before he had send Vlad a calm gesture. 

Which left Dani alone with the man. Vlad widened his eyes a bit as she grabbed him by the shirt to drag him down to her angry face. 

“You really got some nerve coming here and –” 

“And what?” he drawled and slapped her hand away like it was nothing with an arrogant expression, “see the love of my life? That’s really none of your concern, now _is_ it, Miss. Thornwood?” 

“It’s my concern if it’s about _my_ family,” she sneered and felt her anger rising by his pompous smirk. 

“Family you didn’t even knew you had until, _what?_ A year ago?” he asked jeering and adjusted his suit to get the wrinkles out, “Daniel and I go more than seventy years back, my girl, he and I have history together. History he apparently didn’t feel like sharing with you.” 

Dani stepped back, a bit shaken, but hurried to hide it as Danny and Val returned. They looked as if their little “talk” had been serious, but come out in the good end. 

“Mr. Masters,” Valerie began with a formal tone, “Danny here is both an employee and dear friend of mine, but even though this whole affair seems shady and possible a treat to my corporation, if not my town…” 

She eyed Danny and he returned it with a tired look. 

“…I trust it when Danny has given me he’s word that you’re trustworthy,” she said and lifted a hand to shake Vlad’s, “and I would like to continue to be your business partner.” 

Vlad smiled by that and shook her hand. Danny smiled behind them as well, while Dani scowled. 

She did _not_ find this man trustworthy.

   
 

To make up for the rather unorthodox first-hand impression, Vlad had invited Daniel and the two women to his mansion for dinner. 

After her and Daniel’s “little talk”, Miss. Gray had seemed more open to him and taken the chance to get to know him better, now that they had more than just their business in comment. 

Daniel had seemed pleased by this and been eager to make the two of them land on friendly foundation. 

Vlad’s first impression of the woman from their brief meetings and deal about Axion Lab's future, hadn’t changed despite the commotion in Daniel’s little kitchen. 

Valerie Gray was an insightful business woman, who’s wealthy upbringing had taught her that powerful networks were just as important as befriend your future wife’s family. 

He knew instantly he would have no problem with her, now that Daniel had vouched for him. 

She would be easy to control and charm as long as he held up a good appearance, which he of course would. 

But despite his flawless conduct and unquestionable gentleman manners, the little Miss. Thornwood continued to stall and watched him with suspicion. 

Vlad could only imagine where her hostility was coming from and wondered what Daniel had told her – or more precise, _how much_. 

He doubted Daniel had slandered him after returning from the Far Frozen, Daniel had left that part of himself in New York. 

His soulmate had clearly missed him and longed for him, fully knowing or not and as Miss. Gray didn’t show the same opposition towards his person, something could seem that Danielle Thornwood’s behavior simply was a trait she had inherited after her granduncle. 

She was just being overprotective. 

As charming as such a trait could seem in a child, it annoyed Vlad to see a grown adult show such antics. 

If this continued, she could prove to become and obstacle in the future he was building with Daniel – and Vlad wasn’t going to wait for her to die of old age to be done with the problem. 

He had to find a way to charm this troublesome Thornwood and that soon. 

“Daniel have told me about your engagement. So tell me, when will the wedding take place?” he asked the couple and received a smile and a scowl in return. 

“We have plans of marrying as soon as they lift the ban sat by The Supreme Court of Minnesota,” Valerie explained and smiled at her fiancée, “it will take some time and some work, but I’m sure the court can work something out. Now that we’re in the same boat, perhaps I could get your influence in on the matter.” 

“It would be my pleasure,” Vlad smirked and the two resourceful business people shared a confirmed nod that promised a humiliating defeat for the state court. 

Daniel gave him a light elbow in the side with an even lighter scowl, “three days dating doesn’t make wedding bells ring, Vlad. Quit getting ahead of yourself.” 

Vlad just smirked, “my my, one should believe 70 years of courting should be enough, but perhaps I’m not the old fashion one after all.” 

Daniel blushed and Valerie hid her own amusement with a hand over her mouth, while Danielle’s scowl deepened. 

“So you’re planning on staying here?” Danielle asked with a clear undertone of hoping for the opposite. 

Vlad had to break her hopes, but obviously not with a heavy heart. 

“Staying? Oh no,” he said and saw her peak up, only for him to grin with a hint of fangs, “’moving’ would be a better term and even more accurate – ‘moved’. This mansion will be my home from now on, as well as my business office. I was thinking on buying one of the buildings near town hall tomorrow morning to have the last of my employees moved here.” 

Danielle seemed crestfallen, while her clueless fiancé peaked up. She began asking into his business plans and they fell into conversation of finance possibilities within the city. 

He caught Danielle lean towards Daniel to whisper something in his ear when she thought he wasn’t aware. Daniel send her a little frown and whispered something back. 

Apparently not an answer she had hoped for and she continued to sulk for the rest of the dinner like some crossed teenager. 

Vlad couldn’t get them out of his mansion again fast enough as the night finally came and he was pleased to know that his appearance in the city had scared away most of the more dangerous ghosts away. 

Leaving his and Daniel’s signatures as the most dominant in the entire area. 

“Looks like we’re going to get a night free for once,” Valerie said and pulled Danielle with her to the sportscar. 

Daniel waved and returned inside, just in time to miss the last nasty look Danielle send Vlad over her shoulder before entering the car. Vlad kept up the smiling and waving till the car was out of sight and then lowered his hand with a dangerous scowl. 

He would have to do something about that woman and that soon. 

His dark mood was lifted increasingly as he caught the sound of running water and returned upstairs. Daniel had already settled in the jacuzzi slowly filling with water and bubbles, looking as if he’d lived here always and haven’t just visited the mansion for the first time. 

He smiled up at Vlad as he entered the large bathroom and beaconed with a finger for Vlad to join him. 

“Join the bubbly side, fruitloop.” 

“Don’t mind if I do,” he smirked and phased out of his close to get in. 

Daniel pulled him in with a kiss and pressed Vlad’s shoulders down to make him lean his back against the youngers. 

“C’me here, Mr. Workaholic,” Daniel whispered in his ear and started massaging his shoulders. 

Vlad hadn’t been aware just how tensed he had been and sighed as his stiff body soon relaxed into those firm hands. 

The soothing sound of Daniel’s steady breathing, the light splash of scented water and the faint sound of Daisy cleaning downstairs made Vlad close his eyes in sweet content. 

He had been looking forward to Daniel coming to his home. Having a secret agenda, involving getting the cold-cored halfa addicted to luxury again and have him move in here permanently. 

Daniel’s own house was charming and surprisingly clean, but Vlad preferred silk sheets, large jacuzzies and a wine glass in hand at all times. 

With his ghost staff, they wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning or cooking – don’t get him wrong, having Daniel cook for him and act as his little sassy housewife was a delight, but Vlad would rather have it being a thing of fun, rather than a necessity. 

The fewer responsibility Daniel had to fulfil, the more time he would have to fool around with Vlad. 

And Vlad planned on fooling around a lot from now on. 

He noted with a smile that those hands had started to move lower and he sighed pleased. He opened his eyes when Daniel held out a cigarette for him. 

“Light us, would you?” 

Vlad took the offered cigarette with his lips and lifted his pinky to form a roseate flame at the end. He took a lazy drag before handing it to Daniel and the other exhaled along with him. The smoke mixing with the scent of expensive soap. 

“I love your mansion,” Daniel sighed and soaked Vlad’s hair with palms of warm water. 

“Then you’re going to love the bedroom,” Vlad assured and took the cigarette again. He could hear the knowing smile in Daniel’s voice as he chuckled. The vibration of his chest against Vlad’s back. 

“Let me guess – soft as a cloud, heavy canopy and red wine-colored sheets?” 

“They’re green now, but yes,” Vlad smirked. 

Until now Daniel hadn’t questioned the fact that the mansion’s color scheme had been dedicated to that of the Green-Bay Packers, despite the knowing look he had sent Vlad when they had passed the displays of said team’s artifacts in the hallway. 

“You’re such a Packer’s fanatic.” 

Vlad scoffed lightly as Daniel massaged shampoo into his hair, “fanatic is such a negative word, but yes.” 

“And you haven’t just fulfilled your creepy dreams and bought them because...?” 

“Because the Packers are owned by the city of Green-bay and they won’t sell them to me!” Vlad pouted sourly and was pressed to Daniel’s chest with a soothing kiss on the temple. 

“Aw, it hurts when money can’t buy you everything, doesn’t it? Poor cheesehead,” Daniel purred, and Vlad let go of his frustration with the stubborn football team to enjoy the one treasure surpassing them on his list of desires. 

He laid back his head as the other washed out the shampoo of his hair with the little showerhead and began adding conditioner to his hair instead. Tendering it with firm strokes and blunt fingers running through his scalp. 

No, Vlad couldn’t buy everything with money. Some things you would have to acquire with will and if anything was a testimony to Vlad’s iron will, it was the naked halfa showering him with affection in this moment. 

Daniel turned on the tv on the wall and lowered the volume. He and Vlad watched the pictures for a while, before Vlad stubbed the cigarette in a crystal tray on the edge of the jacuzzi and ran a possessive hand over Daniel’s thigh. 

“What did Danielle whisper to you? You seemed rather upset.” 

The hands in his hair stiffed for a second, before the continued as nothing, Daniel’s voice remaining light, “oh, Dani? She’s just being protective, she would be no matter who I dated. Well you’re the only one I have that she knows of, but still. She’s just looking out for me.” 

Vlad was aware, that little woman getting on his nerve already, “Daniel. It’s alright, you can tell me.” 

Daniel sighed and hugged Vlad, rested his chin on Vlad’s shoulder, “she asked me what I believed Jazz would have thought about us.” 

Vlad clenched his teeth. That little nuisance sure knew how to push his buttons. How dared she use Jasmine against Daniel like that? 

“I believe she would have been pleased to see us ending up like this, badger,” he assured and turned a bit to look at Danny, “our relationship could have filled an entire psychological field study and proved that ghost mates are a scientific fact.” 

As predicted, Daniel chuckled by that and lighted up again, “ghost mates? I thought that was a myth – but pretty fitting for us, being the only two of our kind. I’m sure Jazz would have been thrilled to study it. Did you know she took a master degree in psychology before she died?” 

Vlad didn’t, but expected nothing the less from a clever head as Jasmine Fenton. 

“Well, I suppose that proves that age hold no boundaries over the human will.” 

“You mean like us?” Daniel asked cocky and suddenly grinned, “ _stepfather_?” 

Vlad shook his head, “what have you told her?” 

“Not much. She must have recognized you from Jazz’s collection of old family photos and gathered the pieced herself. The only thing I told her was that I used to sleep with an older man and that said relationship wasn’t entirely consenting. But that we worked it out and we’re on good terms now.” 

Vlad hummed pleased, that’s what he thought, “I would say great terms. And I still plan on marrying you, my boy.” 

Daniel made a face, “why? It’s not like it will change anything and when we’re giving up our identities for new ones, we would have to do it all over again. Besides, no state would allow us. Wouldn’t it be easier to just stay like this and fuck each other senseless?” 

Vlad scoffed, “it’s the principle, Daniel. I have seen you as my spouse for years, the world should know so to and allow us to be who we are. We shouldn’t be limited by something as ridicules as human laws.” 

“God, you’re so old fashion,” Danny complained and Vlad just smirked. 

“And you’re still a brat.” 

Daniel stuck his tongue out at him and Vlad responded by leaning forward and catching it, pulling his head in to deepen the kiss. Danny pressed his thighs around him automatically and Vlad lifted a hand to reach his neck and pull him closer. 

Closer and closer and still never enough. 

Danny smiled into the kiss and ran his hand down Vlad’s chest, both slick with water and bubbles and both of them getting harder by the seconds. Danny shuddered into his mouth as Vlad squished his thigh and ran a nail across the skin. 

Felt how Danny pressed closer to Vlad’s chest and his kisses tuning more heated. Vlad smirked into the kiss and Danny rolled his eyes. It still annoyed him a bit just how much control Vlad had over him. 

Vlad moved to turn around, but Danny had gotten a better idea and held him in place. Vlad wasn’t pleased by that, he could tell and Danny smirked into the kiss. A little scheme already forming in his head. 

Vlad was going to teleport them into the bedroom to get Daniel beneath him as he wanted and teach him a lesson or two, but lost that thought all together when a new pair of familiar hands ran up his thighs. 

Vlad turned his head to find a smiling Phantom between his legs and Daniel chuckled behind him and sucked on his earlobe. 

“Relax, Vladdy. Leave the control issues at work.” 

“We’ll take care of you,” Phantom smiled and began leaving love bites on his chest. 

Vlad had never had two Daniels before, but couldn’t complain as they worked together to stimulate him with small chuckles and smiles. 

“Hmmm,” he hummed and leaned his head on Daniel’s shoulder to give the halfa more access, while Phantom sucked on his nipple and played with his hair, “well it _is_ my vacation after all.” 

Both Danny’s grinned and stroke their hands across his chest and massages the muscles, made him relax and his needs grow. 

They seemed to know what he wanted and he groaned as Phantom took his member in hand and began to stroke him in long teasing strokes. Danny bit his neck and sucked on the skin to leave hickeys along with gentle kisses. 

The feeling of those small pangs of sharp pain and pleasurable swilling of Danny’s tongue left Vlad breathing heavy and he welcomed it when Phantom leaned in to kiss him passionately. 

Vlad had never been one to leave the control to others. Even when he bottomed with Daniel, he would take control one way or another – he had always preferred it that way. 

But this was something he could get use to and he knew he would, considered this would be his life from now on. He buried his hands in two sets of tresses. One raven and the other snow-white and pulled them closer. 

The unknown need to become closer than possible and simply drown himself in the magnificent being that was Daniel. Both Daniels responded with moans and engulfed him in fiery lips, firm hands and fast strokes. 

One pair of hands was colder than the other and Vlad groaned in sweet ecstasy from the sensation of being scolded by ice and heat at the same time. 

The strokes soon made him groan and Daniel whispered sweet nothings into his ear, while Phantom occupied his mouth and put his barbell to good use. Vlad felt like heaven and decided that it was time to move to the clouds. 

The two Daniels grinned in unison as all three landed on the king-sized bed and Vlad breathed in content as they pushed him down on the mattress with equal smiles. 

Their hands ran over him with experienced ease and Vlad lost his breath when Daniel swallowed his cock whole. 

"Danny…” he moaned and had his breath stolen from a whitehaired Phantom, who had come down to take care of his upper half. 

Both of them send his mind into haywire and he buried his hands in their hair, one long and silky, another shorter and with a side-cut. Both perfect to him, both his. 

_His._

“Mine,” he groaned possessively and they grabbed him harder in response, added pace and ran their nails down his skin, added fire to the already burning inferno that was his body. 

Daniel swilled his tongue around his length and began to bob his head up and down, making the man moan into Phantoms mouth and shiver from overloaded senses. 

A sudden dip in the mattress and purr that hadn’t emitted from either halfas or duplicate, made Phantom look up and deadpan in surprise. 

“Vlad, what the hell have you done to Maddie!?” 

Daniel rose just as shocked and called back his duplicate to stare with wide eyes. Vlad groaned in annoyance and lifted his head to see his cat sit at the end of the bed. 

“Daniel, just ignore her, this isn’t the first time she has watched –” 

“What the hell have you fed her!?” Daniel continued and gestured to the cat with a accusing finger, “you said she had become fat, not three time her size!” 

Vlad was close to just drag Daniel down and restrain him, but decided to humor him instead and took an extra look at his cat. 

True, Maddie had come back from the Ghost Zone with a few more pounds and a meaner demeanor, but nothing out of the ordinary. Although, now that Daniel was mentioning it…Maddie had grown quite a bit. 

“Well, she might have grown a bit I suppose,” he began and received a bewildered look. 

“Vlad, she’s the size of a fucking tiger, is that even normal for ghost animals to grow like that?” Daniel asked and suddenly got a suspicious look, “you haven’t experimented on her, have you?” 

Vlad glared, “no.” _Maybe a little. But not as much as with those animal mutants in the basement._

Danny shook his head, “did you become incredible bad a lying or did I just getting better at reading you?” 

“The latter,” Vlad assured him and pulled him back down, “now, stop stalling, you little tease and help me enjoy my vacation.” 

The white tiger at the end of the bed increased her purring and Danny send her one last glance, before Vlad turned his head to take his lips and pulled him beneath him. 

In lack of a second Daniel, Vlad decided it was his turn to distract the other from the world and called forth a duplicate. Danny knew god damn well that Vlad was using sex to keep him from being mad at him, but couldn’t really care as Plasmius joined them. 

Maddie looked fine, despite being turned into a freaking tiger and he could get mad at Vlad for mutating his cat later. 

Much, much later.

   
 

It was late at night when Vlad’s phone suddenly rang. 

Vlad tried to ignore it in favor of staying under the covers and Daniel secure in his arms, but whoever was calling him at this ungodly hour didn’t seem to get a hint. 

As soon as the call had ended, the phone rang again and Daniel turned over in his sleep, buried his face in Vlad’s chest. Vlad caressed the black locks, couldn’t help from smiling. Daniel was such a heavy sleeper, always had been. 

There was no doubt Daniel could sleep through an earthquake, while Vlad on the other hand, would wake alone by the slightest disturbance. 

When the third call started, Vlad decided he might as well take it and kissed Daniel’s head before phasing out of bed and into the next room. 

Maddie, who had been sleeping at the end of the bed, followed him loyal as ever and laid down by his bare feet, as he sat down on a chair. Moving to another room would be somewhat necessary in case it was Mr. Lee and his office calling him again. 

Daniel had started to despise the man as much as Vlad and made a habit of stealing Vlad’s phone to keep them from getting disturbed by him. 

Vlad pushed his hair back and petted Maddie’s large head as he took the phone, “Vlad Master’s speaking.” 

_“Plasmius.”_

Vlad scowled by the voice of the hunter, hadn’t thought to hear from him again in a long time and honestly…he had all forgotten about him. 

But now that the hunter had drawn attention to himself again, Vlad recalled why that was. 

Skulker was going to regret betraying him. 

“Skulker,” Vlad greeted coldly, “give me one good reason I shouldn’t send the Fright Night to hunt you down and banish you to the deeps of the Unworld.” 

_“I have found the missing page.”_

Vlad hesitated. The anger with the hunter hadn’t settled the least, but this was pleasing news. The missing page had slipped him once in New York after Walker’s death, but now it had returned to the surface. 

Vlad had for a long time suspected Daniel of having it, but lost that suspicion many years ago after he had met Daniel again in the circus. 

“Where?” 

_“It’s been fused into an instrument and controlled by a ghost roaming the human world,”_ Skulker explained, clearly weighting his words with the man to stay as professional as possible, _“she’s core waving with the instrument, the only way to get the page is to rip it out of there with your ghost gauntlets. I’ve won her trust and are leading her in the direction of Amity Park in this second.”_

Vlad listened with interest, feeling the old thirst awake from its slumber. The hopes of finally completing Sojourn’s Journal and gain control of the world as its rightful ruler returning to him like a promised dream. 

Only two pages left. One was on its marry way. 

“And how did you ‘win’ this specter’s trust again?” he asked, suddenly a bit suspicious. 

_“I have my ways with women,”_ Skulker just said, the hint of pride in his voice and Vlad rolled his eyes. 

Skulker then turned humbler and waited a second before talking again. 

_“Will this be sufficient?”_

Vlad considered it. Skulker’s betrayal still ran deep like a burned wound, but the hunter had clearly outdone himself on this one. 

Skulker had always had a flair for hunting these pages and been a valuable member of Vlad’s crew – and even though he wouldn’t admit it or acknowledge it openly, he needed Skulker to finish this. 

He needed someone to go through the gates of the Elsewhereness willingly for the rest of the Ghost Zone to see and trust that Vlad was controlling their heaven. 

He still needed Skulker to become a ruler. 

I suppose,” Vlad drawled and heard the hunter utter a sign of relief, “but make no mistake, Skulker. If you wish to regain my trust you will have to outdo yourself on this one. No mistakes this time.” 

_“I will not fail you,_ ” Skulker promised and Vlad nodded to himself. 

He hoped for Skulker’s own sake that he wouldn’t. 

“Keep me informed of her arrival to Amity and send me the details as they develop.” 

_"I can send you my first report over a fax right now,”_ Skulker offered and Vlad teleported to his study to get to the machine. 

A stack of papers was already printing, and he flipped the first to see a promotion poster of a tour. The blu-haired singer sticking out her tongue at him and dragging her finger across an electric guitar. 

Vlad stared at it for a long time before a smirk stretched across his face. 

“My, my, looks like little Miss. McLain is back in town,” he muttered and left a duplicate to sort out the papers, while he returned to bed. 

Maddie had returned to her place by the end of the bed and Vlad smiled by the sight of Daniel’s sleeping form. He had unconsciously moved over to lie on Vlad’s side of the bed and pressed the pillow to his chest. 

Vlad phased it gently out of his arms and took its place, Daniel’s arms moving to hold him by themselves. The younger halfa sighed in content by the returned warmth to the bed and Vlad caressed his back. 

Stared into the dark bedroom and ignored the little sting of unease in his stomach. 

Daniel would be angry with him, but come to understand when Vlad took over the world. He wasn’t a child, he would see that Vlad had been right from the start and take the seat as Vlad’s fellow ruler. 

Become his prince and husband in the next world. Daniel would understand, he was sure of it… 

Vlad pressed Daniel closer. 

The future suddenly darkening.


	45. As they say on Broadway; “The show must go on.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Vlad arrived to Amity Park to try his chances and settle down  
>  _As he expected, it was a backwater town and clearly a ghost infested one of the kind. A series of burned holes in one of the billboard announcing for the upcoming mayor election, clearly testified to a past fight with ecto-blasts and Vlad could already see Daniel flying around and playing hero before his inner eye. The unease returned and Vlad forced it down. He had to find Daniel. Had to know._  
>  _He had already seen the picture of his new home and didn’t pay much attention to the mansion or the surroundings, as his ghost maid, Mrs. Daisy and the estate agent welcomed him to his new home and showed him around briefly. It might be Amity Park's Ultra Posh Polter Heights neighborhood, but it was clearly not on the level with the old West Egg, or as grand as his castle back in Wisconsin. But it would do for now, he supposed and signed the papers to get the agent out of his new home._  
>  _He entrusted his luggage and Maddie to his old ghost housekeeper and decided it was time to begin his search._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But unlike Danny, not everyone is glad to see the man  
>  _“Danny, can I talk with you in private, please?” Val suddenly said and Danny sighed before walking after her into the living room, but not before he had send Vlad a calm gesture. Which left Dani alone with the man. Vlad widened his eyes a bit as she grabbed him by the shirt to drag him down to her angry face._  
>  _“You really got some nerve coming here and –”_  
>  _“And what?” he drawled and slapped her hand away like it was nothing with an arrogant expression, “see the love of my life? That’s really none of your concern, now is it, Miss. Thornwood?”_  
>  _“It’s my concern if it’s about my family,” she sneered and felt her anger rising by his pompous smirk._  
>  _“Family you didn’t even knew you had until, what? A year ago?” he asked jeering and adjusted his suit to get the wrinkles out, “Daniel and I go more than seventy years back, my girl, he and I have history together. History he apparently didn’t feel like sharing with you.”_  
>  _Dani stepped back, a bit shaken, but hurried to hide it as Danny and Val returned. They looked as if their little “talk” had been serious, but come out in the good end._  
>  _“Mr. Masters,” Valerie began with a formal tone, “Danny here is both an employee and dear friend of mine, but even though this whole affair seems shady and possible a treat to my corporation, if not my town…”_  
>  _She eyed Danny and he returned it with a tired look._  
>  _“…I trust it when Danny has given me he’s word that you’re trustworthy,” she said and lifted a hand to shake Vlad’s, “and I would like to continue to be your business partner.”_  
>  _Vlad smiled by that and shook her hand. Danny smiled behind them as well, while Dani scowled. She did not find this man trustworthy._
> 
> And maybe she's not that far of...  
>  _ **“I have found the missing page.”** Skulker said over the phone._  
>  _“Where?”_  
>  _ **“It’s been fused into an instrument and controlled by a ghost roaming the human world,” Skulker explained, clearly weighting his words with the man to stay as professional as possible, “she’s core waving with the instrument, the only way to get the page is to rip it out of there with your ghost gauntlets. I’ve won her trust and are leading her in the direction of Amity Park in this second. I can send you my first report over a fax right now,”** Skulker offered and Vlad teleported to his study to get to the machine. A stack of papers was already printing, and he flipped the first to see a promotion poster of a tour. The blu-haired singer sticking out her tongue at him and dragging her finger across an electric guitar._  
>  _Vlad stared at it for a long time before a smirk stretched across his face._  
>  _“My, my, looks like little Miss. McLain is back in town,” he muttered darkly._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hello, angst seekers - ready to see the foundation of my pompous pep foundation begin to crumble?  
> This chapter is short and I apologiuze for that in advance - but hey, at least it's a chapter on time, right?  
> In this chapter Danny will sings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcw6q0Z8uTk  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

Danny couldn’t help but feel a sting of déjà vu. 

The women’s dresses and the men’s attire had changed a lot during the years and the intake of alcohol minimized to the humbler, compared to the senseless drinking back in the 1920’s – but he still couldn’t shake the feeling of unease of him as he loosened his butterfly a bit. 

Vlad was hosting a housewarming party. 

Danny should probably had seen it coming. Vlad was never one to allow a chance to be a huge show off go past him and the guestlist had stated more than one important name. 

Not only the most important/riches heads of Amity Park, but old colleges and businesspersons from outside town as well. 

Danny had recognized the parents of some of the loaded kids from the high school and seen a glimpse of the principal, but the rest was unknown to him. Of course, the benefactors and partners of Axion Lab was easy to spot, as they never moved far from their boss. 

Valerie nodded to something one of her college was saying, looking as spotless as ever and attracted a big deal of attention with her deep cleavage and open back dress in a clear yellow. 

Dani added to the attention as Val’s plus one and Danny guessed she had relented for a change and allowed her fiancé to dress her up. The cherry red dress wasn’t as exposing as Val’s, but hugged Dani’s body rather tight. 

She caught Danny staring and made a grimace that clearly said; “I can’t breathe in this!” 

Danny just snickered and waved to the unfortunate woman, before Valerie was called to a new circle of people and took Dani with her. Danny knew he probably should sympathies with her, being in the same boat and all. 

He had tried his best to talk Vlad out of formal clothing and servants with trays of champagne and canapés, but there was no stopping Vlad when he wanted something. 

The mansion’s parlor had ben redecorated into a ballroom, the catering team ordered, and the invitations send out. The man of the hour hadn’t stopped there and taken Danny out to a tailor as well – ignoring his protests all the way. 

Danny knew he looked good in his new smoking, but loosened the butterfly again to get a bit of air in the warm atmosphere. 

Vlad had even gone as far as to call a hairdresser to get Danny’s long hair styled and ready for tonight – something Danny had found unnecessary, but couldn’t help but whistle at the result either. 

Danny hadn’t dared to touch the complicated braiding, fearing that he would ruin it and had to stop himself from scratching his sore scalp now and then. 

“Enjoying yourself?” Vlad asked and handed him a glass of champagne. 

Danny scowled, Vlad knew he wasn’t and sighed as Vlad adjusted Danny’s blue butterfly discreetly. 

“Stop pampering me, fruitloop, just let me be a wallflower for once.” 

“Under no circumstances,” Vlad replied and led Danny out to the circles of people, “a gentleman should mingle with his peers and take part in conversation – especially if he is the host of the gathering.” 

Danny scoffed, “your gathering, Vlad – _yours_. Tell me again why we couldn’t just have celebrated you moving here with chips and a movie at my place like normal people?” Vlad just chuckled and stopped as a group of men addressed him. 

Danny listened for a minute, then decided that his life was too damn long for business conversations like this and sneaked away to find a quit place to hide. 

He ended up getting draw to the home cinema, where some of Vlad’s guests was watching the Packer memorials and admiring the large collection. 

“Why not,” he muttered and went in there with a tray of canapés one of the waiters was offering him a sample of.

   
 

Vlad caught Daniel’s venture into the home cinema out of the corner of his eye and returned focus to the conversation, now that he knew his soulmate hadn’t left the party. 

“Did you hear what happened in Madison?” one of the older gentlemen asked the group, “five people dead and an entire police squad wounded during a concert. No one knows what happened exactly, but eyewitnesses said that it was as if the children had just gone savage.” 

“I read parents tried to stop their teens from going to her concert with a curfew in Dallas,” principal Ishiyama added, “this Ember and her violent music – all the children at school listen to her CDs and even dress up as her.” 

“It’s our luck that mayor Montez and City Hall put up a ban to keep her from performing in our town. That man will have my vote at the upcoming election,” the man next to Vlad said and Vlad recognized him as his neighbor – what was his name again? 

Vlad continued to listen to the worried citizens, while coming up with a solution for his problem. If the mayor and City Hall continued to ban Ember McLain’s concert, Vlad’s chance of getting into close contact with her and remove the page from her guitar would be slim. 

He could always go to the next city falling into her clusters, but then he would have to come up with an excuse to leave Daniel for a time and Vlad would rather rip of an arm, than risk losing Daniel again. 

He had no doubt that his soulmate would get suspicious by a sudden need to leave town and then there was the little Miss. Thornwood…she would surely do all in her power to smite him and plant doubt in dear Daniel’s mind in his absence. 

Vlad couldn’t risk that, not when he was this close to finally gain world dominance. 

And speaking of the little nuisance… 

“Danielle,” Vlad greeted with a calm smirk as he turned away from the group and made her almost jump in surprise, before her cheeks turned red. 

Apparently, she had hoped to stay hidden behind him and listen in on his conversation without getting caught. 

_Fat chance, my girl._

“Enjoying the party?” he asked with a hint of amusement, making her grit her teeth in anger. 

“It’s very _you_. Just how much did you have to press Danny to get him into that suit?” she sneered, giving the party a glance of unease, “he hates stuff like this, he doesn’t even know anyone here.” 

Vlad rolled his eyes and accepted a glass of champagne from a servant, “really? Back in the days Daniel and I used to host parties like these all the time. Have you ever seen him dance? There wasn’t a young girl in sight who wouldn’t kill to have at least one dance with him during the night.” 

“Then why is he hiding?” she asked with crossed arms and Vlad scoffed. 

“Hiding? He’s watching a documentary next to your fiancé in the next room – maybe you should join them and start taking a real interest in your granduncle, instead of jumping to conclusions, my dear. You might get to know him while you’re at it.” 

Vlad chuckled by the look of her anger and saw it coming before she could empty her glass in his face. No one noticed how he had turned intangible for a second other than Danielle and she looked as if she was ready to make a scene. 

Vlad’s eyes shone red for a second and Danielle yelped as the servant behind her tripped over an invisible foot and spilled champagne down her neck. 

While the apologizing servant ran for towels, Vlad leaned in for only her to hear with a smirk, “let this be a lesson, Danielle. I put the 'pro' in Quid-pro-quo. Not that you're bright enough to know what that means…” 

She growled at him and pushed him of her without caring about the guests watching, “I get the idea and I don't like it! Believe me, this isn't over yet, Masters!” 

Vlad watched her angry strides towards the home cinema and felt the old glee from competition awaken in him. It had been a long time since anyone had dared to challenge him like that. The little jests between him and Daniel didn’t count, not really. 

The younger halfa adored him, didn’t fight him with malice – unlike his little grandniece. But how to crush her without risking getting Daniel’s attention? 

A bursting laughter caught his ear and the sight of mayor Montez in a circle of his peers got Vlad an idea. The perfect scheme to solve all his problems. 

“Oh, how I love a challenge.”

   
 

Danny stuffed another canapé into his mouth, not knowing what they were made of, but they tasted okay, meaning they couldn’t be made of something completely weird, right? 

He sent the tray a second look and Valerie, who had been here shortly before he joined the cinema, snickered next to him, “relax, Danny. I’m pretty sure this one’s just tuna and caviar on a leaf.” 

“Ew, I think it moved,” Danny joked and they giggled like children in the back of the cinema. 

Both looked up as Dani joined them with a towel around her shoulders and a sour face. 

“Sup,” she muttered, took the tray from Danny and took a seat in-between them to watch the documentary, “what’s good?” 

The sports commentator on the projection sheet continued to explain, _“on a snowy day at Lambeau, Bart Starr faces Butkus and the Bears…”_

“Well, we’ve just learned that the Packers won the very first Super Bowl,” Danny replied and sent the towel a glance, “and what’s with the rustic shawl?” 

“Nothing,” she muttered with her mouth full of canapé and threw it behind her, before suddenly looking a bit concerned, “uhm, any of you who knows what ‘Quid-pro-quo’ means?” 

“Return of an action or favor,” Valerie informed and pulled her in with an arm, “why? One of the men trying to school you or something?” 

“You and Vlad aren’t fighting again, right?” Danny added, feeling this was something Vlad would say. 

“Why do you date him?” Dani scowled and Danny sighed in annoyance, having been this conversation already ten times this week. 

“Because –!” 

The rest of the guests shushed them and Danny sighed and turned to a whisper, “remember how me and Val used to be enemies?” 

“Good times,” Val snickered and got a fist bump from Danny. 

“Exactly, and just look at us now,” Danny continued, “it’s the same with me and Vlad. Just a bit friendlier and less fist bumping. Well there’s bumping, but –” 

“We don’t want details, Danny,” Valerie smiled and pulled one of his braids gently. 

Danny slapped her hand with grin, “quit it, it took an hour to make this.” 

“You look like a girl,” Dani noted sourly and Danny pattered his eyelashes at her. 

“Like a pretty girl?” 

Dani just groaned at that and Danny decided to go get a talk with Vlad to ask him to lay of the games with Dani. She looked like she could use a break. He took a quick round around the guests, before he finally found Vlad talking with a woman, only to recognize it as a duplicate. 

Danny frowned a bit and tried to find the real Vlad with his core waves. The desired ghost signature turned out to come from Vlad’s study on the second floor and Danny left the ballroom to go upstairs. 

The door to the study was a bit ajar and Vlad’s voice sounded through. 

“ – then get him a hotel suite! I don’t have time for the fool to come here and ruin my night…just tell his assistant to…” Vlad sighed heavily and Danny opened the door to catch Vlad’s window reflection pinch the bridge of his nose in annoyance. 

The little tv in the corner showing pictures on silent. 

“Fine, I’ll take care of this, but it won’t be pretty, Donna.” 

Vlad looked up as Danny closed the door behind him and send Danny a gesture that told him to wait, before he returned to his phone conversation. 

Danny knew by now that Donna was Vlad’s secretary back in Wisconsin, but didn’t like coming second after any woman in Vlad’s span of attention anyway. 

Danny knew he wasn’t playing fair, but still took a seat in Vlad’s large office chair and took of his jacket, while the man continued his conversation with his back to him. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Lee makes a scandal after this. As we speak, his entire board has already sold the company’s shares and rebought them privately behind his back…” 

Danny caught Vlad’s eyes in the window reflection and smiled seductive, before undoing his butterfly slowly. Vlad slowly turned and continued to watch him without changing his expression or the tone of his voice. 

Danny opened his cufflinks slowly and began to undo buttons, while containing the man’s midnight blue eyes. Vlad rose one of his brows as Danny ran a hand down his chest teasingly. 

“Fine, I’ll talk with him – no I won’t sign anything, not when we’re hours from taking the company from right under his nose…” 

Danny bit his lower lip and shred the shirt of him, drawing the man closer and began playing with the hem of his slacks. Vlad’s breathing remained the same, but the eyes had turned a bit red. 

“Hmmm,” Vlad just replied and grabbed Danny’s arm before the younger could open the first button of his slacks, “juts warn the PR about the upcoming commotion and send the papers for tomorrow’s meeting.” 

Danny drew him closer with a finger hooking in Vlad’s bolo tie and brushed his lips across his. 

Vlad smirked, “very good, I’ll call the office tomorrow, have a good night.” 

Vlad had barely ended the call, before Danny closed the distance and Vlad secured it with a hand behind Danny’s neck. Vlad hummed as Danny sucked on his lower lip and allowed himself to be dragged half down into the chair for Danny to get access to his neck. 

“What made you get the idea of suddenly seducing me like that, love?” Vlad asked with a low husky tone, that sent shivers down Danny’s spine in glee. 

“You’ve been talking with a lot of women tonight,” Danny noted and nipped at his jaw, “I thought it was time for me to remind you of the fact that you got a partner.” 

Vlad couldn’t help but chuckle, “my, my, have I gotten the great Danny Phantom jealous?” 

“Quit being so smug, fruitloop,” Danny replied and dragged Vlad into his lap. 

Vlad chuckled by his impatience and gave Danny something for his money, as he took control of the kiss. Danny was ready to move this to the next level, when Vlad placed a finger between their lips. 

“As much as this pleases me, you and I should get back to the party.” 

Danny groaned, “but it’s boring! Can’t we just leave two duplicates and fuck here on your desk instead?” 

Vlad kissed him, but shook his head, “you and I both know we lose the concentration to hold a formal duplicate when we’re first get started. And honestly, Daniel, what kind of host would this make me at my own housewarming party?” 

“The caring kind that takes care of his lover’s needs?” Danny tried, but there was no luck, “aw, Vlad, c’me one – this desk needs to be inaugurated.” 

“Later,” Vlad promised and kissed his forehead before forcing the shirt back on him. 

Danny watched him as Vlad secured the butterfly and stood up to let the man finish it with the jacket. He couldn’t help but recall some of the times Vlad had dressed him in the past. 

Danny had been in tears one or twice back then. Even fought Vlad one time and ended up with an arm locked behind his back and warning fangs at his throat. The hands back then had been harsh, the eyes cold and his own words poisonous. 

Most of the words exchange between them had been in anger. Most of their life had been built on that. So unlike the gently gestures that was their life now. Vlad seemed almost like a completely other person now. 

Like the version of Vlad, Danny had once called his. 

Vlad stopped buttoning the jacket as two pale hands came to hold his gently. He looked up in question to find two blue eyes heavy with old sorrows. 

“Oh, Danny,” Vlad whispered and pulled the other into his arms. 

Returned the unsaid things with a tight hug and kissed his temple. Danny buried his face in the other’s shoulder and inhaled the familiar scent. The smell of Vlad that had once haunted him to the brink of anxiety, but now calmed him down and gave him a sense of protection. 

The music from downstairs reached them through the silence and both began swaying gently without a word. 

“I love you,” Vlad whispered into his hair and Danny nodded, knew this and knew the man always had. 

Always would. 

The song from downstairs flowed a little louder now and Vlad smiled as Danny began to sing along in a soft tone.

 

_“Listen to the wind blow, down comes the night_  
_Running in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies_  
_Break the silence, damn the dark, damn the light.”_

_“And if you don't love me now_  
_You will never love me again_  
_I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain_  
_And if you don't love me now_  
_You will never love me again_  
_I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain_  
_And if you don't love me now_  
_You will never love me again_  
_I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain…”_

 

 

It was clear that the song wasn’t about happy love, if the hard pronounces and eerie music was to judge. Vlad listened to the words and couldn’t help but feel as if it had been written for them. 

The word “chains” was clearly a metaphor. Something that originally would mean the bond of love and trust between two people, but here it seemed to have a darker meaning, here it was representing the dependency that the two had developed for each other. 

A toxic relationship, but founded on an unhealthy, if not honest need for the other. A need so strong that that they had to acknowledge it in this moment or walk away forever.

 

_“Chains keep us together_  
_run into the shadows._  
_Chains keep us together_  
_run into the shadows…”_

 

Vlad hugged him closer, knew that his plans for Daniel world in fact drag Daniel from the light into the shadows, but ignored it. Pushed it down and buried it in his own self-confidence that he would win in the end as he always did. 

Couldn’t allow himself to waver now. 

Not when he was this close. 

Danny stopped swaying along with Vlad and found his lips to share a slow kiss. They continued to hold each other, and Danny caught the sight of the little tv out of the corner of his eyes and turned to it with a sign. 

Vlad followed his eyes and saw the muted news promote about the war in Iran and Iraq. Both of them followed the scenes of war without a word for a time. 

“Its…funny,” Danny said quietly, “do you remember the time when we believed that civilization had an expiring date and a nation could only grow to a certain point before it collapsed on itself? That our civilization was a last golden age that would fall back into an era of darkness, just like the Egyptian, romans and Turkish empire before us?” 

Vlad nodded slowly, used to believe this back in his own youth as well, “yes. Strange how this world doesn’t seem to have an end – or breaks for that matter.” 

Danny chuckled and caressed his hand, “how long do you think it will last?” 

_Till I have the last page._ “Who knows?” Vlad replied and loosened his grip, “come now, the guests are waiting.” 

Vlad led them both back to the party after securing that the younger’s smoking was spotless and fussed a bit over Daniel’s hair. 

One of the braids had loosened and made it look a bit messy, but lucky for them, Daniel had gained enough braiding expertise while living with the Far Frozen’s inhabitance to redo it himself. 

With some luck, none of the guests would know what had occurred – well, almost occurred in the study and they returned into the sphere of humans to play their roles and make connections. 

Vlad caught a glimpse of Danielle as they stepped into the ballroom and blinked to her before planting a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. To anyone else, it would just look like a friendly gesture, but the woman knew better and scowled at him. 

Valerie Gray looked up and nodded to him. Vlad nodded in return. Despite Miss. Thornwood’s growing distaste for his person, he and her fiancé had landed on mutual grounds doings these last weeks. 

_Very_ mutual ground. 

It wasn’t often that Vlad found a business partner willing to step outside a line or two to secure a little head start for their company and Miss. Gray was more than willing to play dirty if that meant her organization stayed floating with success. 

So much, in fact, that she hadn’t even blinked before debating with him whenever to break into another company’s lab to copy their newest blueprints. 

Vlad chuckled, _my, isn’t it lovely to take an interest in your beloved’s family?_

Vlad stopped to address one of the wealthier citizens of Amity and heard Daniel say something about getting them something “real” to drink, before going in the direction of the catering table, while sending a duplicate for the little bottles of deathblossom extract in the lab. 

A tap on his shoulder made him aware that his maid Daisy (in perfect human disguise for the evening) had something to say and he lowered a bit in order for her to whisper into his ear. 

“Mr. Lee has arrived, sir,” she whispered and Vlad looked up to see the Chinese businessman take of his coat by the door. 

Vlad put up his mask of politeness and walked to the man with confident strides. 

“Mr. Lee, what a surprise to see you here in the states –” 

“Quit fooling around,” the man scowled and snapped at his young assistant to come with his briefcase, “I haven’t taken an 18-hour flight to make smalltalk. You and I need to talk, Masters. I have papers that needs attention.” 

Vlad kept up smiling, while cursing the man for being rude on the inside. He gestured for them to take a seat at one of the tables and saw Daisy send two servants with refreshments their way out of the corner of the eye. 

“Right this way,” he said and took a seat along with the man. 

The assistant remained standing and Vlad wondered if the young man was working with Mr. Lee's board members in secret and kept the man in the dark, or was actually obvious to the fact that the rest of the company had pushed the CEO under the bus by now. 

“Mr. Lee, the deal still stands, the papers have been signed and the first schedules for a cooperation plan laid out by our boards,” Vlad said sternly with collected fingers, “I can’t see why you suddenly felt the need for this rearrangement of management reshuffle.” 

Vlad acted as if he wasn’t aware of the visible veins pulsation on the man’s neck and accepted the refreshments. The assistant whispered something into Lee’s ear, but the man waved him away. “I will not be taken for a fool Masters and I won’t be ignored anymore! I haven’t been the CEO of this company to let loopholes like this go past me. This company has been in my family for seven generation – seven!” 

“Yes, very interesting,” Vlad drawled and wondered if he should just overshadow the two to make them take a nap in a closet until morning when the deal would be unchangeable, or not, “how do you find the states, Mr. Lee? As far as I have understood, this is your first time out of China.” 

The man scoffed drily, “this land has no tradition. No respect for itself – just look at those two.” 

Vlad turned his head to see Valerie Gray and her fiancé in a conversation with some of Vlad’s company partners. Vlad caught the man’s meaning as Valerie said something to Danielle and received a light kiss in return. 

“That should be illegal. How dare they show such homosexual tendencies in public?” 

Daniel, who had been coming over with two glasses of champagne in that moment, stopped dead in track by the man’s words and decided that this was his que to quietly walk away again. 

The younger halfa acted as nothing and turned around to leave with a discreet whistle. 

But Vlad would have none of that. 

Danny looked up in alarm as Vlad stood to pull him back in and brought him forth the business man with a dark smile. 

“Mr. Lee, may I introduce you to my _fiancé?_ ” 

The man spat his drink at that and several guests around them looked up, as Vlad hadn’t keep his voice down. Rather the opposite. Daniel blushed as Vlad laid a firm hand on his hip and left no doubt about their relationship to the bystanders. 

Mr. Lee uttered something sounding like a curse in his own tongue, before storming out with his perplexed assistant on his tail. 

“Well that’s what happens when you talk business with a conservative,” Vlad said to the bystanders and received several laughs and nods in return. 

“Vlad, what are you doing?” Daniel whispered and put up an uncertain smile as some of the guests came over to know more about their relationship. 

“Something I should have done a long time ago,” Vlad replied and greeted Valerie and Danielle as they came up to them, “ladies, looks like we will be sharing the pages of scandals from now on.” 

“Finally,” Valerie sighed and lined up for a picture that some paparazzies, who had sneaked into the party hurried to take, “that will take the pressure of me and Dani for a time.” 

“Yippee,” Dani sighed and tried to smile a little for the camera. 

“But what about your deal?” Danny said worriedly, but Vlad just grinned. 

“There’s more important things in life than deals, badger.” 

_Yes_ , Vlad thought to himself, as he posed for the cameras. 

What did a business deal he had worked on for months mean, when the love of his life he had fought to get for seventy years was safe in his arms and the next step to world domination was less than days away?

   
 

 _Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA_

“Did you actually marry him?” 

Nichols knew it would be a spoiler, but had wanted to ask ever since Danny mentioned that part of the story. 

Danny shook his head, “no, we never got that far and the Supreme Court of Minnesota didn’t legislate same-sex marriage before the 1. July 2013. Not that it really mattered for me or Vlad, none of us were in the state at that time anyway.” 

“But Valerie and Dani were,” Nichols noted and Danny nodded. 

“Yeah, I attended their wedding the 2. July. It was sweet and everything they deserved. Their son was the best man and everything. Neither Dani or Val cared that they were both in their fifties.” 

Nichols couldn’t help but grin at that. Being in a long-lasting relationship with his wife himself, it always made him happy to know others could still be in love even after many years of company. 

Lesbians or not. 

Now that he was thinking about it, before Danny, Nichols couldn’t even say if he had ever shaken the hand of a gay man or lesbian before. 

He couldn’t exactly recall his opinion of such a person before tonight, but now he had the feeling that even his own son could come to him and tell he was gay and Nichols would be completely cool about it. 

Strange how much a person could change your aspect of life. 

“I don’t know why, but I’m beginning to hope you and Vlad stay together,” Nichols heard himself say and the way Danny smiled at him told him that he wasn’t the only one. 

“I know. But I’ve already told you, my story –” 

“Has no happy ending. I get it,” Nichols scowled, “I just…” 

“You want me to be happy,” Danny finished for him and the man nodded, “even after all the terrible things I’ve done?” 

Nichols didn’t hesitate, “yes. I want you to be happy, Danny Fenton.” 

Danny smiled at that and for a second Nichols could have sworn those blue eyes had turned wet. But then Danny blinked and all signs of tears had vanished again. 

“Then you might wanna hold into this chapter of the story. Cause sadly, my world was about to fall apart for the last time in my eternal life. My heart was about to break. I have never allowed my heart to break ever since.”


	46. Danny just wants peace, he just wants to be happy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Ember McLain is on a tour  
>  _Vlad turned his focus to the conversation, now that he knew his soulmate hadn’t left the party._  
>  _“Did you hear what happened in Madison?” one of the older gentlemen asked the group, “five people dead and an entire police squad wounded during a concert. No one knows what happened exactly, but eyewitnesses said that it was as if the children had just gone savage.”_  
>  _“I've read parents tried to stop their teens from going to her concert with a curfew in Dallas,” principal Ishiyama added, “this Ember and her violent music – all the children at school listen to her CDs and even dress up as her.”_  
>  _“It’s our luck that mayor Montez and City Hall put up a ban to keep her from performing in our town. That man will have my vote at the upcoming election,” the man next to Vlad said and Vlad continued to listen to the worried citizens, while coming up with a solution for his problem. If the mayor and City Hall continued to ban Ember McLain’s concert, Vlad’s chance of getting into close contact with her and remove the page from her guitar would be slim._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While Vlad and Dani have their disagreements  
>  _Vlad chuckled by the look of her anger and saw it coming before she could empty her glass in his face. No one noticed how he had turned intangible for a second other than Danielle and she looked as if she was ready to make a scene. Vlad’s eyes shone red for a second and Danielle yelped as the servant behind her tripped over an invisible foot and spilled champagne down her neck._  
>  _While the apologizing servant ran for towels, Vlad leaned in for only her to hear with a smirk, “let this be a lesson, Danielle. I put the 'pro' in Quid-pro-quo. Not that you're bright enough to know what that means…”_  
>  _She growled at him and pushed him of her without caring about the guests watching, “I get the idea and I don't like it! Believe me, this isn't over yet, Masters!”_  
>  Vlad watched her angry strides towards the home cinema and felt the old glee from competition awaken in him.  
>  _A bursting laughter caught his ear and the sight of mayor Montez in a circle of his peers got Vlad an idea. The perfect scheme to solve all his problems._  
>  _“Oh, how I love a challenge.”_
> 
> And Vlad makes a move  
>  _Danny looked up in alarm as Vlad stood to pull him back in and brought him forth the business man with a dark smile._  
>  _“Mr. Lee, may I introduce you to my fiancé?”_  
>  _The man spat his drink at that and several guests around them looked up, as Vlad hadn’t keep his voice down. Rather the opposite. Daniel blushed as Vlad laid a firm hand on his hip and left no doubt about their relationship to the bystanders._  
>  _“Vlad, what are you doing?” Daniel whispered and put up an uncertain smile as some of the guests came over to know more about their relationship._  
>  _“Something I should have done a long time ago,” Vlad replied and greeted Valerie and Danielle as they came up to them, “ladies, looks like we will be sharing the pages of scandals from now on.”_  
>  _“Finally,” Valerie sighed and lined up for a picture that some paparazzies, who had sneaked into the party hurried to take, “that will take the pressure of me and Dani for a time.”_  
>  _“Yippee,” Dani sighed and tried to smile a little for the camera._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hello people!  
> The final hour for our favorite halfas rushes to an end and the plot thickens! Can you handle the suspense!? The drama!?  
> So exited to see how you readers will react :D  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :)
> 
> * * *

_Year 1986, Amity Park’s Local High School, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_

**_“I have never allowed my heart to break ever since.”_ **

   
 

Dani was scowling. 

She had been doing this for a couple of days now, enough to even make her students share some glances when she wasn’t scowling in their direction. But despite this she was still their favorite teacher. 

At least in secret. 

Teenagers wasn’t supposed to like their educators and the young people of her astronomy class would rather tell an insult her to her face, than admit that they preferred her above the rest of the teacher staff, with the same affection as a child favoring cookies before their vegetables. 

Despite her current mood, Dani was known as a young fresh teacher, who actually held some passion for her own subject. 

She had more than once spend extra money on field trips for her students and taken them out to the beach for the sake of star observation and the occasionally planet change. 

When she gave them homework it was light, if not a little to light in some parent’s opinion, but she always took the time to help students after school in the library with small teaching sessions for those who needed it. 

Today they were watching a movie about the construction of NASAs newest project; The Hubble telescope – but mostly because Dani hadn’t had time to plan the teaching for today and had to take the easy way out. 

Showing a movie had always been the solution for any teacher with troubles at heart and too little time to focus on their job. One could only wonder what teachers did before the invention of movies and tv-screens. 

Dani didn’t know and didn’t really care at the moment. To cooked up with her angry thoughts and suspicions of her granduncle/cousin’s new – did she dare say it? _Fiancé._

Dani thought back on her old conversation with Danny the day she came out as a lesbian to him. Now that she knew he had been talking about Vlad, the whole conversation had kept coming back to haunt her. 

She felt the little hairs on her neck stand as she recalled Danny’s light tone. 

_Dating is a strong word in my case. I’ll say it was a one-sided affair – had to keep it secret and all back in the 1920’s. He didn’t really give me a choice on the matter. Didn’t respect me, although he insisted on it being for my own good when he took me with force and kept me close. He said he loved me, but…it wasn’t love._

“Of course not. He’s a freaking vampire,” she muttered and received some worried looks from the nearest students. 

Dani ignored them and ran a hand through her hair to try and fix her thoughts. She had kept an eye on her cousin since the housewarming party and Vlad’s official announcement of his and Danny’s relationship, but found nothing out of the ordinary. 

Well, other than the man hanging over him like some possessive dragon hording its treasure, that is. 

Those two were as if glued by the hip, now that they didn’t have to hide it and never far from each, other than when Danny finally left his boyfriend to go ghost hunting with them. Something that hadn’t been much of since a second halfa had moved into town. 

Apparently those two working together on a territory as mates, was a challenge too risky for even the more ruthless of ghosts and meant that the only ghosts who dared to show their faces here, was the small mindless ones or those who hadn’t existed long enough to know about the territorial rules or rules at all. 

Good for the town she supposed, but still… 

A pop song suddenly rang through the classroom and Dani sighed in annoyance, “people, I get that you like this single and you’re bummed out that City Hall won’t allow her to make a concert here – I’m left with useless tickets to, okay? But I can’t have you play it in class like this!” 

Someone groaned and turned off the song again. 

Dani added some volume to the movie and even though she hadn’t paid much attention to it, even she could tell it was boring as hell. She was almost relived by the chance of a distraction, as the door opened and the schoolyard guard popped his head in. 

“Miss. Thornwood, you’re needed at the principal’s office.” 

Danny frowned a bit, but stood up to follow him without question and turned to her students in the door, “no funny business while I’m out, okay?” 

“Okay,” they all droned in unison and Dani had more or less expected it, when the song _Remember_ started playing again through the barely closed door. 

“Teens,” she muttered with a hint of amusement. 

The yard guard didn’t seem to feel the same and shook his head at her, before leading her down the hall. Dani followed into the office, without knowing what to expect, and found Principal Ishiyama behind her desk and a bubblegum popping Ethan in the chair in front of her. 

Dani sighed, already having a feeling where this was going and tried to put up a professional expression. 

“You wanted to see me, Principal?” 

The Asian-American woman nodded sternly, “yes, Miss. Thornwood. Where you aware that Mr. Green here didn’t show up for class today?” 

Dani bite her cheek, she hadn’t really paid attention to the class list of attendance this morning…or any morning this week for that matter. Ethan send her a bored look and popped another loud bobble. 

The yard guard lifted the waste-bin and nodded for him to spit it out. Ethan sighed heavily and did it loudly. 

“Yes…” Dani replied slowly, trying to think up an excuse to save the kid’s ass, but the principal didn’t give her the chance. 

“Then you would probably know that Mr. Green here has been absent from class for over a week now. Any reason you haven’t filed a report about this?” 

Dani squirmed. This was the price for liking your students, she guessed. 

“I was going to take him in for detention right away, Mrs.” Dani lied and took Ethan’s side by the chair. 

Ignored the fact that he had sneaked up a new piece of gum from his pocket and was trying to eat it undetected. The yard guard smacked him in the back of the head and had him losing it to the waste-bin. 

The man sending the kid a warning glance. 

“That’s not going to be enough this time,” the principal scoffed, “he was caught near some wet graffiti on the school’s front wall of all things this time. It’s the same style as the one they found on City Hall.” 

“We can’t prove that and unless you caught him painting it with his own hands, we can’t be sure it was him,” Dani protested and turned to Ethan with a face that clearly said; _‘deny everything!’_ , “tell the principal the truth, Ethan.” 

Ethan hurried to hide his last pack of gum away, “didn’t do it, mam.” 

The yard guard lifted the kids bag – Ethan’s name on the tag and all – and opened for all to see the collection of recently used spray cans. 

Ethan sent them a wry smile, “it’s medicine. I have a condition. _Cough, cough._ ” 

The principal buried her face in a hand resignedly, “just take him to detention. We’ll talk punishment after school.” 

“Right away, Mrs.” Dani promised and moved to get Ethan out of the office. 

The yard guard confiscated the spray cans before Ethan could reach his backpack and gestured to the kid he was watching him with two fingers over his eyes. Ethan replied with a grimace and hurried after Dani. 

“Thanks for saving my ass,” he said and stuffed himself with a piece of gum, before offering a stripe to her, “want one? It’s kiwi-fudge and bacon taste.” 

Dani was going to smack him in the back of the head, but that was her favorite brand, so she took up the offer with a scowl and turned to a stern tone instead. 

“What the fuck, Ethan? Can’t you just paint on the wall of an abandoned ally like a normal kid? This is the third time I had to put up for you.” 

He sulked next to her as they walked the empty hallway, “I know, but I just saw that empty wall and had to paint something – I’m an artist, don’t hold me back, dog.” 

Dani rolled her eyes and gave him a push to change direction for the outside instead of the classroom. She didn’t feel like going back there for the last ten minutes of class, just to yell at some student to turn of the music and restart the movie. 

“I’ll hold you back if it means I can keep you from suspension, kiddo,” she sighed and took a seat at one of the outdoor lunch tables beside him, “and this has nothing to do with art – it’s because of the arcade, isn’t it?” 

Ethan pulled up his legs to rest his arms and chin on them with a pout, “they haven’t rebuilt it. City hall sucks – there’s nowhere to hang out anymore and now that Danny’s busy with his boyfriend, he doesn’t have time for skating practice anymore.” 

Dani stiffened, but then sulked, “the entire town knows by now, don’t they?” 

“It’s pretty much all over the news,” Ethan just said and Dani frowned. 

“Guess I should be happy, now that people aren’t talking about me and my finance anymore.” 

Nathan shrugged and pulled out a spray can from his pocket, “I could paint you and your gurl on a wall if you want? Just how much skin do you want to show?” 

She ruffled his hair with a warning grin and copied his lax way of sitting, stared into the school yard along with him. Hoped for the love of god that he wasn’t serious. 

“If it’s any consolation, he doesn’t have that much time for me either,” she said and scowled, “that asshole acts as if he owns him or something.” 

Ethan just nodded, “he looks like a James bond villain.” 

Dani snorted and blew a bubble, “probably has a secret cellar filled with death-rays and torture instruments.” 

_He probably has, what the hell am I saying?_

Dani glared ahead, the distaste for the man returning, “he’s no good, I just know.” 

Nathan popped a bubble, “because he acts as if he owns every tile on the ground, talks as if everyone around him is dense and treats people like shit when Danny isn’t looking?” 

“That to,” Danny said and gave him a thumb up for good observation, “but there’s more to it. He used to treat Danny really badly. I don’t know how, but somehow Danny took him back and I can’t get my head around it. He’s not even a good person, what does Danny see in that guy?” 

Ethan shrugged, “don’t know. But someone should probably stop him from running for that.” 

Dani popped a bubble and turned her head to him in confusion, “running for what?” 

“For mayor,” Ethan said and nodded towards town, “it’s been on the news all morning. He’s challenging the mayor for the title and my dad thinks he’s winning. He’s going to become our new evil overlord.” 

That made Dani swallow her gum and she coughed like she was going to die as it got stuck in her throat. Ethan padded her back and nodded like an old man as she spat the gum on the concrete. 

“I gotta run!” Dani yelped in panic and ran to get her car. 

Ethan just shrugged and went to go to his locker, where several new spray cans were waiting for him. Thinking about the wall he was going to paint and the political statement that was going to stand nicely with a caricature of Vlad Masters. 

Dani, on the other hand, drove like crazy to get to the center of town and found that the area around City hall had been closed off for people to walk on foot. 

She parked illegal without a though – Valerie was loaded, so whatever – and ran to get to the crowd of people circling the two candidates for mayor office speaking on the podium of the stair. 

She had barely pressed her way through the crowd, before she bumped into Valerie of all people and heaved for breath. Sending the man at the podium a bewildered look. 

“Vlad Masters for Mayor!?” 

Val just shrugged, “I know, right? I didn’t believe it either, until Danny called me. Said that Vlad’s PR people arrived at the mansion this morning and talked about politic possibilities and stuff.” 

“But how is this possible!? It’s election day today!” Dani asked and Valerie handed her a bottle of spring water with some concern. 

“Well, he's a last-minute write-in candidate. Montez doesn’t have any other competitors, so Vlad had all chances of going for it.” 

Dani didn’t like it. There was nothing dark or sinister about running for mayor, but the man’s winning smirk and pompous tone told otherwise. What the hell was that asshat planning!? 

At least he hadn’t dragged Danny into it, her cousin was nowhere to be seen and that gave her some comfort. Her fiancé looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. 

“Not to boss you around, babe, but shouldn’t you be at work? It’s barely lunch hour.” 

“I’m taking a break to watch this train wreck,” she replied and finally straightened up. 

Forced herself to look on the positive side of the situation. 

“Okay,” Dani exhaled, telling herself to calm down a bit, “maybe this is good thing, right? At least his channeling his…sociopathic, possessive, narcissistic tendencies into something positive.” 

Dani could already hear how stupid that sounded and almost crushed the plastic bottle in her hand, “what am I saying!? This doesn’t make any sense, he doesn’t care about other people!” 

Valerie pulled her to her hip with an amused smile, “hate to spoil it, but that’s most politicians for you. But believe it or not, he cares about Danny and if you had been listening, he just said he’s going to fight for human rights and with that, same sex marriage.” 

Dani blinked perplexed and turned her attention to the podium, where Vlad was finishing his speech, “as the first openly gay mayor and billionaire of Amity Park, it is my wish to bring greatness to the city and help it blossom to full potential with a name on the American map. If elected, I hope to breathe new life into this town!” 

Valerie applauded calmly along with the cheering crowd, while Dani stayed sceptic. Vlad waved as he stepped down from the podium to take a break before the after-speeches and caught sight of them in the crowd. 

Dani moved to get away, but Masters was faster than her and planted a secure hand on both women’s shoulders. 

“So ladies, how did you like my speech?” 

A group of reporters swarmed to take a picture of the mayor candidate in company of the Axion CEO and her fiancé, forcing Dani to smile and act as noting next to the two business people. 

“I don’t know what you’re up to, but I’m getting there,” Dani whispered warningly to the man and Vlad chuckled quietly for only her to hear. 

“I highly doubt that with your CV, but don’t worry. You will all see in due time.” 

That did it for Dani and she ignored Valerie’s call’s, as she ripped herself from Vlad’s hand and hurried to find a place to change. Pulling on her disguise as one of the red huntresses. 

“They say you can't fight City Hall, but they never said you couldn't fight the people in it,” she muttered through the mask and only had to wait twenty minutes, before Vlad left the crowd to get to the conference room through the open hallway on the outside of the building. 

He was taken by surprise, as she jumped out from the corner and send him flying in between two buildings with a roundhouse kick. 

She followed him as she jumped onto her hoverboard and flooded above his sprawled from on the ground. Despite the kick, he looked unfazed and smirked up at her. Getting back on his feet with a dark gleeful glare. 

“Why, Danielle, come to whish your granduncle’s boyfriend good luck, have you?” 

“Save it, Plasmius. Whatever you're up to, it ends now!” she growled and charged her ecto-fueled gun. 

“Oh, I assure you, my girl, it is only just beginning,” he grinned darkly and transformed into his alter ego. 

Plasmius moved fast and charged at her with a cry, clearly intending on punching her to kingdom come – but Dani hadn’t trained martial art with her fiancé for years to back out of such a corporeal challenge. 

She flipped backwards to use her board as support and waited a split second for Vlad to launch at her, before she kicked him right in the stomach and sent him crashing up through air between the two buildings. 

Dani was taken back a bit of just how easy that had been and stared for a second at the Plasmius shaped hole, before making pursuit. 

Wasn’t halfas supposed to be like invincible? 

She had seen Danny fight countless of times and witnessed him take down giant ghosts with an arm behind his back, if not lifting cars and getting into skilled combat without breaking so much as a sweat. 

Vlad was the oldest and most experienced of them – but then why was he this weak? Dani had no disillusions about her own strength. She could take down a man – _a human man_ , if needed, but an ancient halfa in the prime of his life and strength? 

A suddenly smirk made her press the board further and follow the sight of Vlad’s hovering form in the air above the City Hall. 

Maybe old age had finally caught up with the half-ghost. 

She was still grinning as she dodged a salvo of his red ecto-blasts and took a bold stance on her hoverboard. 

“Boohoo! It's that it? You forgot to take your supplements this morning? Have a dose of vitamin ME!” she yelled and shot towards him at highest speed. 

Plasmius responded by coming at her with an ecto-disk and Dani made a quick slide to the side to avoid it and punched him twice in the face, before kicking him and sending him crashing down. 

She patted the guns at her hip, guessing she wouldn’t even need to lift a weapon to kick this man’s butt and landed on the roof he had crashed into. 

“And here I thought teaching you a lesson would be hard. You’re making me bored, old man. Why don't you go back to the Ghost Zone and find a haunted nursing home? In other words: GET OUT OF MY TOWN!” 

An ominous laughter made her lose some of her bravado for a second and Plasmius blew a strand of dark hair out of his face, before rising with a fanged grin. 

“You little fool! Do you really think I'm this weak? I'm more powerful that you'll ever know and even now my power increases!” he bragged gleefully and turned to look down at City Hall, “look!” 

The giant _“Election”_ sign led the citizens of Amity Park to the voting booths below and Dani lost her jaw, as hundreds of duplicates hovered above the obvious humans. 

As by a secret signal, all of the duplicates soared down like birds of prey and overshadowed each and every one of the voters. 

Plasmius crackled next to her and Dani finally remembered how to move, as she spotted Valerie down below in the crowd. She had been busy searching around, probably looking for Dani and didn’t see the duplicates before one of them overshadowed her and made her go for a booth. 

“Valerie!” Dani yelled and received a punch in the face, before she could take the board down to her fiancés rescue. The punch sent her right of the roof and Dani widened her eyes in panic as she fell like a stone. 

She landed on one of the parked cars on the street and counted herself lucky that she had been wearing her helmet and broken the fall by the help of her board. Without it she would probably had been dead. 

Behind the news van next to the car, she vaguely caught the sound of one of the reporters discussing the election in front of a camera. 

“Holy hanging chads! In all my days as a reporter I've never seen such a ground swell of support for any candidate! According to the latest polls, Dark horse, Vlad Masters is the new mayor of Amity Park by a landslide! What an up set!” 

Dani groaned from her car wreck and turned over to glare at the crowd of overshadowed people, waving signs and banners saying; “ _vote 4 Vlad!_ ”, “ _real men wears eyeliner_ ” and “ _the V-man cometh_ ”. 

“You gotta be fucking kidding me,” Dani seethed and gasped in horror, before rolling over to the side and down the car to land on the pavement. 

Plasmius’ fist left a deep dent as second later in the car where her head had been a moment before and stood up to grin at her. 

“What is it that you and your students say? ‘Don't hate, congratulate?’” he asked mockingly and laughed goodhearted by her angry glare, as she ripped of the helmet, “oh, what do I care, go ahead and hate.” 

Vlad turned back human just in time for the reporters to arrive and Dani watched from her hiding space behind a car, how all the voters had turned normal again. A confused Valerie shaking her head before following the crowd. 

“And here he is now! The new Mayor elect of Amity Park! Vlad Masters!” a reporter announced and had all the citizens chanting his name with applaud. 

All of them completely obvious to the fact that the man was standing on a wrecked car. Vlad acted as nothing, just smiled and waved. Dani couldn’t believe this. 

Vlad Masters was official mayor of Amity Park.

   
 

Danny watched from the open window of the mayor’s office, as the people gathered around the podium to hear Vlad’s speech as their new mayor. 

He couldn’t help but shake his head and then turned to the real Vlad already taking in the sight of his new office behind the wooden desk. 

“Did you really have to overshadow the voters to win?” Danny asked with a hint of disapproval. 

Vlad just smirked and placed his hands behind his head in content, “all is fair in love and war, Daniel. The citizens needed the last gentle push to give up their old mayor to try something new. And believe me, this town needs some new life.” 

Danny just rolled his eyes and continued to watch Vlad’s duplicate thank the town for choosing him as their new mayor. Danny knew he probably should be angry at the man for making a move like this, but really it hadn’t surprised him as much as it probably should. 

Their truce stated that Vlad could make business and other opportunities in the city if he wanted and running for mayor was as far as Danny knew nothing harmful. He was just a bit surprised that Vlad would go politic, that’s all. 

But noting that interest the man had taking in getting to marry Danny, going for the power wasn’t a bad start if you wanted to change some human laws. 

Danny would always prefer this above the man’s old plans of world domination and if this was Vlad’s way of compensating that old urge, Danny guessed he could allow him that much. 

Danny lifted a brow as duplicate Vlad suddenly stated that he had his success to thank a special person for and called up Dani to stand on the podium. 

“Are you serious?” Danny asked and watched his grandniece getting pushed unto the podium. 

She was clearly not cool about it, but to stunned to do anything else than stand next to Vlad with a deer-in-the-headlights expression. 

“Well, she and I didn’t have the best start,” Vlad admitted and beaconed for Danny to get to the desk with a finger, “but by giving her the credit for my future dealings as mayor and secure her the shoulder pats that’s bound to follow, I’m certain that she will warm up to me. We’re going to become family after all.” 

“She wouldn’t be like this if you just stopped toying with her,” Danny warned and send the man a stern glance. 

Vlad just continued to smirk, glad that Danny hadn’t seen the little fight between him and Danielle just now and gesture for him to come closer. 

Danny cursed under his breath, as he couldn’t stay mad at him for too long, when he was sitting all smug and inviting behind an intimidating desk like that. 

Danny pushed of the window frame with his hip and walked slowly to the man with lightly rocking hips, before phasing through the desk to sit on the edge before Vlad. 

“You’re really set on this marriage thing, aren’t you?” 

“You have no idea,” Vlad replied with a seducing tone and rested his hands on Danny’s jeans clad thighs, “making you my First-gentleman is only one of the titles I’ll like to grand you, badger.” 

Danny responded by leaning forward and grabbing the end of the man’s bolo tie. Vlad watched with a hungry glint in the eye, as Danny undid the tie and slipped the red string around his own neck to make a bow. 

The red bow making him look like an inviting present waiting to be unwrapped. 

Danny smiled with a warning edge, “let’s get something straight, Mr. Mayor. I might be your First-gentleman, but I’m not gonna be your running mate. I’m still sleeping in on Sundays till noon and I’m not gonna wear a suit and tie. Deal?” 

“Deal,” Vlad chuckled and pushed Danny onto his back to take him on his brand-new desk.

   
 

Vlad stroked Maddie’s head in the quiet study and put down the phone on the desk. 

It was late, but he had work to do before he could go to rest – work both as company CEO and now as Mayor of Amity Park. Not to forget the little hobby of collecting he was doing one the sideline. 

It was his third day as mayor, but he could already tell that the fuss of PR people, the persistence of the media and his constant trips to his office of City Hall had started to annoy Daniel a great deal. 

Something Vlad had responded to, by telling Daniel to go back to his own house to get away from the rush and take some time off with his grandniece for a change. 

Daniel hadn’t been much for leaving him alone at his mansion, but Vlad had assured him that it all would calm down in a day or two when the media got enough of the story and he had settled into his new position as mayor. 

Daniel had then kissed him goodbye to go to spend some quality time with Danielle and Vlad would get the coming days all to himself. 

And they were already coming in handy. 

“Looks like Miss. McLain has wrecked another city,” Vlad said and his tiger (former cat) purred, the vibration of her strong vocal cords soothed his steady hand. 

He smiled as he ran his fingers through the white fur and couldn’t help but compare it to Phantom’s white mane. 

“According to Skulker, her little tour will bring her to Amity tomorrow – and with that, the page.” 

Vlad laughed quietly to himself and flipped the stack of papers in front of him. To stacks forming on his desk of papers he had signed and papers he hadn’t. 

Vlad had already sighed most of the papers and gone through the formalities that needed his attention, before finally getting to the papers that had some value to him. 

The documents dealing with the town’s ban of a certain singer remained unsigned on his desk and would stay that way if he had it his way – something he certainly would. 

Said ban was under a lot of jurisdictions problems and had become ineffective until the current mayor resigned it and put it back into function. Something he would do his to prevent. 

“And with my power as mayor and defender of all new and modern, she has my absolute permission to stop at our little back-water town and play her tunes,” he smirked and then turned a bit solemn, “but how to keep dear Daniel from getting wind of our little singer? If he finds out that his former admirer has become a ghost and arrives to torment the teens of Amity Park, he’s bound to seek her out and ruin my chances of getting to her guitar.” 

Maddie growled and Vlad peaked up, “oh, Maddie, you are so brilliant! Yes, let’s call on Daniel’s little hunter friend. She should have received the generous donation for weapon development I’ve injected into her lab by now. I’m sure that new toys and the fussy feeling of helping a friend out is all the motivation she’ll need for this little job.” 

Vlad picked up his company pager, found Valerie Gray’s contact and beeped her right away. 

He only had to wait a couple of minutes before the French doors of his study was opened and the leader of the red huntresses presented herself on her hoverboard to unfolded in all her red glory. 

“Well, that certainly was fast,” Vlad noted with a charming smirk and was replied with an even more pompous smile from the new armored CEO, “my, don't you look fancy tonight, Miss. Gray.” 

“Got a few upgrades,” Valerie noted and flew into his study to land on the expensive carpet. 

The new and improved hoverboard designed from blueprints of the Russian army he had smuggled out of the land a few months ago, folded in on itself and vanished into her red backpack. 

“Well, perhaps you'd be willing to upgrade the network of your organization and get introduced to some friends of mine, who shares our interest in ghostly weaponry? I can arrange a diner party next Tuesday.” 

“Sounds like a splendid idea,” she replied causal and took a seat in one of his chair with a businesslike manner, “but there’s no need to beat around the bush with me, Vlad. We both know that not even family does thing for free for one another. What is it that you need from me in return?” 

Vlad couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Very few people dared to be this frank with him. Most would rather ignore the trap for the promise of cheese and stay obvious to the law of nature, that stated that men like him didn’t do charity for others without something in return. 

But it was surprisingly delightful to finally have such a direct tone with another power-hungry individual. 

He could already tell she was going to be his favorite relative of all Daniel’s family relations. 

“Then let me say it as it is,” he stated and had a duplicate serve them a glass of brandy, “it has come to my attention that a ghostly threat is moving towards our town as we speak.” 

“Ghostly?” Valerie noted and then hummed as she accepted her glass, “a job for team Phantom then, I presume. Too strong for yourself to take down, Mr. mayor?” 

“Not at all,” Vlad noted with a hint of amusement, “but this threat has some complication when it comes to your little team. I’m afraid Daniel could get hurt in the process.” 

That made Valerie blink and she narrowed her eyes, “explain.” 

_Oh I will._

“It’s quite unfortunate, actually,” Vlad said and laid thick on the theatrical to make him seem concerned, “what we’re dealing with, is a ghost, who used to be a human Daniel knew. She and Daniel had a deep genuinely bond and he failed to save her from getting murdered by an arsenic. He even took the blame for her death after he killed the murdered in an act of self-defense and till this day, he still can’t stop blaming himself for her fate.” 

Vlad took a second to see how his audience was doing and found that he had actually moved the woman of steel. Valerie put down her glass, suddenly realizing what this meant. 

“He doesn’t know she has returned as a ghost.” 

“Correct,” Vlad replied and hid his winning smirk by turning his back to her and stare into the flames of the fireplace, “of course, this ghost is nothing like the woman he used to know and as a ghost, she won’t hold any real emotions for their old friendship either. This ghost – Ember McLain, I’m sure you’ve heard of her – has been terrorizing towns by taking control of young teens with her music. Turned them into mindless slaves and caused havoc in her trail through the states.” 

Valerie sighed, “I’ve hear of her, there’s reports of deadly incidents at all her concerts and people have been killed in the commotion that follows her. You’re telling me she’s a ghost?” 

“And an extremely dangerous one at that,” Vlad added, admiring how his influence on the woman was getting stronger every second, “that’s why I can’t risk Daniel getting into contact with her. We need to take her down ourselves without his knowledge. Daniel has a gentle heart, I’m sure you’re aware. I can’t risk having him interfering and try talking sense with a ghost, who wouldn’t hesitate to harm him.” 

“He could risk getting badly hurt,” she agreed, “a ghost would exploit every chance to take down a halfa for his territory, especially if he’s handing himself over that easy.” 

“So we agree,” he added and received a doubtful glance. 

“Why did you call me here as the only one?” she asked, clearly just curious and Vlad had the feeling she already knew what he was going to say next. 

“Isn’t it obvious? You’re the most capable ghost hunter I've ever seen!” he smiled and folded his hands together, “you're smart, you're fast, you're strong. And most of all – you're motivated. Not to forget the simple detail, that just like me, you understand what it’s like to hold someone dear and don’t hold back for nothing. I would have liked to take your fiancé in on this to, but I’m afraid she doesn’t exactly like my person. She’s not like you and I, Valerie. She and Daniel doesn’t have that will to eliminate all threats to what we hold dear without hesitating.” 

“Really?” she scoffed with a light smile, clearly not that keen to take flattery from a man. 

“Of course!” Vlad assured goodhearted, “why else would I say such a thing? I would have to be some sort of, oh, diabolical villain, to manipulate you like that.” 

Vlad grinned and they stared at each other for a second before both burst into that kind of refined laughter only rich people could produce. 

“Ho ho, I kill me!” Vlad chuckled and wiped a tear from his eye, before forming a first under the table “ _or Danielle_.” 

The last had been muttered and he hurried to bring up that grand smile of his to cover for it, as he stood to meet Valerie on the opposite side of the desk. 

“And, my dear, it's the reason I can trust you with this mission. I have already lifted the ban of City Hall that prevents Miss. McLain from performing in Amity and my man in the field has informed she will be arriving tomorrow.” 

“What do you need me to do?” she asked, tone indicating that she was already set on the target like a skilled soldier. 

Vlad couldn’t help but admire such professionalism. 

“Help me take down this ghost, while keeping Daniel in the dark of her presence,” he replied and smirked as she nodded firmly, “I knew I could count on you, Valerie.” 

“Well, family helps each other out,” she replied just as smug and they shook hands on it. 

Vlad watched as the huntress shot out of the French door, already typing the needed information into her suit’s computer and he laughed darkly as he returned to his seat. 

“This is going to be easy with Miss. Gray on the team, that woman is simply a treat,” he muttered and had his breath beaten out of him, as the tiger tried climbing onto his lap, “Maddie, stop it, you’re not a small size anymore!” 

The tiger growled sourly as it placed its head in his lap instead and he sighed before returning to his petting, “oh, relax, Maddie. You’re still my favorite girl.” 

She narrowed her eyes at him and Vlad still found himself taken back sometimes by the astonishing intelligence she had developed after her death. 

She continued to stay angry at him and Vlad scoffed before getting an idea of how to get her into a better mood. 

“Oh, don’t be like that, Maddie – let’s see what your other Daddy is doing, hmm? That will cheer you up.” 

Maddie increased her purring as Vlad picked up the phone and dialed the Fenton household.

   
 

“Danny Fenton, here,” Danny greeted into the phone on the kitchen wall and held the phone between his chin and shoulder, in order to scoop a spoon of homemade ice-cream into his mouth from the large bowl in his arms. 

“ _Hello, Daniel, how is everything?_ ” Vlad replied ever so formal and Danny smiled as he heard a certain purr in the background, “ _Maddie wanted to say goodnight and I missed your voice._ ” 

“Aw,” Danny cooed and swallowed his ice-cream, “it’s barely been a day and you two already miss me. Kiss Maddie from me, will ya?” 

He grinned as Vlad sighed in annoyance, “ _for the last time, I will not kiss the tiger._ ” 

“Don’t be her least favorite father like that and kiss your daughter,” Danny joked and ignored Vlad’s protest. 

“Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!” Danny chanted and stretched his foot to reach for the can of sprinkles on the table next to him with his toes, getting tangled up in the phone wire while he was at it. 

“ _Daniel, I swear if some ghost doesn’t kill me, your stupidity will._ ” 

Danny just chuckled at that and took the can from the grip of his toes to sprinkle the dessert, “alright, just tug her in, will ya? And don’t stay up to late, Vlad. The paperwork will still be there when you wake up.” 

“ _Yes, that is the laws of physics, thank you for reminding me_ ,” Vlad drawled and then turned a bit softer, “ _I look forward to have you back in the mansion again._ ” 

“Me to,” Danny admitted and digged around in the bowl to get some of the fudge on the bottom. 

A little whim made him snicker and he bite his lip, “hey, Vlad?” 

“ _Yes, badger?_ ” 

Danny had to hold back a laughter. He couldn’t say he had ever done this before – having only seen it in movies, but everything had a first time, “what are you wearing?” 

There was a long silence, before Vlad cleared his throat, “ _…my suit?_ ” 

“The one from Amani? With the weird wide slacks?” 

Vlad grunted, clearly not amused with Danny’s opinion of modern fashion, “ _yes, I’m wearing the Armani suit – now, what has my attire to do with –?_ ” 

“And beneath it?” Danny interrupted with a sultry tone and Vlad seemed finally to have caught his drift and chuckled on the other end. 

“ _I’m wearing a white shirt, no tie – I’ve just taken it off. Beneath my slacks, I’m wearing a pair of black briefs from Calvin Klein. The ones you said hugged by rear like a second skin,_ ” Vlad replied and Danny imagined them with a giggle, “ _now, what are you wearing?_ ” 

Danny looked down at himself and stuffed a spoonful of ice-cream into his mouth, “t-shirt with Chewbacca’s face wearing sunglasses, saying ‘party animal 1980’ – oh and pajamas pants with little stars on them. The constellation is completely inaccurate, but they’re comfy – ups, spilled some ice-cream on them, hang on a second.” 

Danny used his telekinesis powers to get a paper towel his way and heard Vlad sign on the other end, probably shaking his head now he was at it, “ _Daniel, what have I told you about eating healthy?_ ” 

“Hey, you’re not the boss of me outside the bedroom,” Danny reminded him, but then realized the bedroom probably wouldn’t sufficient, “well, outside most surfaces…actually I need to move outside this kitchen to find a spot you haven’t bossed me around on. Guess I will have to eat on the floor in the living room then.” 

He heard Dani spit her own ice-cream back in said room and with his super hearing, so had Vlad. 

“Ew!!!!” Dani whined in disgust and yelled into the kitchen, “Danny I’ve eaten things from that kitchen! Have you two done it in the couch to!? What is that spot!?” 

“Gotta go,” Dani whispered into the phone, “may the force be with me.” 

“ _Alright – call me at the office tomorrow,_ ” Vlad chimed, “ _we’ll chat_ ” and hung up. 

Danny phased out of the phone wire and floated his way into the living room, where Dani had move to sit on the floor with an affronted expression, “I swear, if you two have fucked in the guest room bed –” 

“We changed the mattress,” Danny assured, “it barely survived five nights before –” 

“Don’t wanna know,” she interrupted and Danny shrugged before handing her a new bowl of ice-cream and took a spot next to her on the floor. 

He grabbed the remote to put _Star Wars – return of the Jedi_ back on and leaned back into the couch front as the battle of Endor reached its peak. 

Dani munched on her ice-cream and handed him a pack of jerky to crumble on top. Both had discovered early in their times as house mates, that they shared the same taste buds and liked to mix stuff together most people would vomit at. 

Danny guessed it had something to do with the Fenton gene, but who knew? 

They both leaned a bit forward as the battle reached one of its more critical parts. 

Despite having seen the movie – if not the entire _Star Wars_ series – more times than he could recall, neither Dani nor Danny could get enough of the universe and succumbed to the state of nerd-like worship in their devotion. 

“This scene always fucks me up,” Dani admitted and both made a sad frown as one of the Ewoks rose from an explosion and tried to get its friend to retreat with him, only to discover its comrade had died in the explosion of the shot. 

“Makes you want to tell Luke to hurry up,” Danny mumbled and Dani shrugged, watched how said Jedi struggled to not succumb to anger and attack the Sith Lord while Darth Vader watched them. 

“Ethan misses practice skating with you,” Dani suddenly said and Danny felt a stung of guilt. 

“It’s hard making time for it, but hey – City Hall has finally started rebuilding the arcade again.” 

“Must be nice being the mayors best man,” Dani said, forged indifference lacing her tone, but Danny could hear the accusations loud and clear. 

“I’ll wish you would stop doing this to me,” he sighed and put his bowl away, apatite lost. 

Dani sent him a scowl. Despite Danny’s effort to get her and Vlad to get to know each other and the popularity Dani had received amongst her students after Vlad’s election, Dani seemed more set than ever on fighting the man. 

Danny didn’t know what to do anymore and all these accusation and negativity from Dani’s side had started to drain him emotionally. 

“I just don’t get it,” she continued, obvious to his tired annoyance. 

“What isn’t there to get!?” Danny snapped, haven’t gotten tired of this conversation the last five times it had already occurred doing the past two days. 

“All of it,” she stated and crossed her arms, “you’re a nice person, you help people with your powers, you’re cool with kids and just an amazing guy in general – while he’s a stuck-up jerk, who steps on people, treat others like dirt and you just…” 

She groaned in frustrations, “you just turn a blind eye to the fact that he used to rape you as a kid!” 

Danny had to take a second to count to ten and not snap at his only known relative. He knew she was only doing this because she wanted to protect him – even though a small part of him insisted this on being a psychological thing. 

He knew Dani had problems with her own parents, had been treated bad at home (of course, not as badly as he had in his own teen-hood, but still) and maybe a part of her was still bummed out by the fact that he and Nick hadn’t got together like she had hoped for. 

He could understand that and understand that she held him in a light that didn’t match his relationship with Vlad, but for god sake – she was a grown woman! 

This childish act had to stop and that now. 

Dani scoffed at his lack of response and pointe to the tv screen, where Luke and the siths were discussing his dark side. 

“You’re like Luke and Vlad’s the Sith Lord or something – stop turning to the dark side,” she insisted and received a tired look from her granduncle. 

“Dani, come on.” 

“Just look at them, would ya? Do you see Luke forgive the emperor for having all those innocent Ewok slaughtered or sending an army at his friends down on the moon base? Do you see them move in together and act as if they had never been enemies? No! Because that would be fucked up!” she insisted and pointed to the screen for emphasis, “this movie even teaches you not to join the dark side!” 

“I’m not Luke!” Danny snapped and snatched the remote to pause as Darth Vader drew his red lightsaber, “if I’m anyone of them, I’m him! Okay?” 

Dani send him a long glance and looked from Vader to him and back again, “that doesn’t make any sense, Danny.” 

“Yes, it does,” Danny said and took a deep breath before running a hand through his hair. 

Looked at her with tired eyes. Maybe it was on time that he told her. He debated a second, before looking away. He might as well, if that meant he could finally settle this and have her understand. 

“You wanna know why I took him back?” Danny asked sternly, “the real reason?” 

Dani seemed to understand she would actually get a real explanation this time, not just the usually vague explanations and turned a bit on the floor to face him. 

“Yes.” 

Danny continued to look down. Suddenly hesitating. 

No matter how much time went by, it was still hard for him to tell, if even recall his past. The part he was about to explain, even harder. There was still bits and years he didn’t remember and other parts he remembered all too well. 

He frowned, tried to get his hands (his clean hands, not bloody, nothing beneath the skin, not bloody) under control and then gave up on them all together, as they suddenly began to feel dirty. Placed them in his lap, still not looking at her. 

“Vlad saved me.” 

That wasn’t exactly what Dani had expected him to say, but rolled with it, “from what?” 

Danny could feel the old wounds rip open like the skin of an overly ripe fruit and he suppressed a shiver, before he finally turned to look at her with an unreadable gaze, “from myself.” 

Dani waited for him to explain and Danny pulled a leg to his chest to rest his arms and chin on it, stared ahead. Memories coming back to him now that he allowed them to flood his old mind. 

“I once had a friend who died,” he explained quietly, “murdered. It was the first time I lost someone to something that wasn’t a natural cause in some sort and long story short, I ended up killing her murder. I was arrested and send to prison for it. Vlad tried to convince me to bail, but I just wanted to die.” 

Dani blinked in surprise. Hadn’t seen that one coming. During their time together, Dani had bugged Danny for stories about his time in New York and listened with childish glee about the stories of the first Phantom team. 

Danny always made it seem like a time without a beginning or end, but after he had told her about Vlad, she had been forced to remind herself that Danny had lived a life before his superhero life and since he was here of all places…something must have happened for him to give it up as well. 

Danny watched her process what he had just told her and moved on with a sign, “I met a ghost whisper in jail while I waited for the chair, he got me under his spell and used me to escape. Controlled me as a puppet for seventy years and made me do things. Stealing, killing and…things my mind can’t or just won’t remember. But the worst part wasn’t the thing he made me do…it was the things I did with my own free will.” 

Dani shuddered as the temperature seemed to have fallen and in the darkness, Danny’s eyes had almost turned a bit luminescent. A hard green gaze that wasn’t human. 

“I killed innocent people, Dani. Children to. Mostly children. I don’t know why, but the dark side of me the spell had provoked…Dan…he just couldn’t get enough of it.” 

Dani stared at him. A part of her had always known that Danny kept secret from her about his past that he wasn’t proud of, but this wasn’t something she wouldn’t have believed about him. 

“You were under a spell,” she said, more to assure herself of Danny’s innocence than the other way around, “it wasn’t your fault.” 

“Vlad told me that to,” Danny said, no emotion in his voice and rubbed his cheek like he was exhausted, “he found me and when he realized I wasn’t…me, he tried to take me somewhere safe to undo it. Help me become normal again – which…didn’t make any sense.” 

Danny smiled without humor and hugged his leg tighter. Recalled the twisted mindset that had been his own evil side and still till this day he found it hard to even try and understand the strange desire Dan had held for Plasmius. 

“Dan adored Vlad, told him to take over the world with him. He was all that Vlad had always wanted me to be. Dan was that person Vlad had wanted me to be from the start…but all Vlad could think of...was saving me.” 

Danny shook his head, looked up at her with severe eyes, “don’t you see? He could have just taken the staff, taken the thing controlling me for himself and let me stay evil forever. He could have had it all, but all he did was trying to make me remember who I really was. He didn’t even lift a finger when I was ready to kill him for good. He just looked at me with those tearful eyes like he had lost the one thing in the world that was worth living for.” 

Dani swallowed. Vlad had been ready to die for Danny? That didn’t make any sense in her mind. Vlad was a self-centered man without real compassion for others. A creep set on Danny for the sake of keeping him like some trophy wife. 

He didn’t even care about Danny’s ghost hunting, called it childish to play superheroes. He couldn’t possible care that much for Danny. Could he? 

“I can’t keep on hating, Dani,” he said and his voice turned raw, “I can’t live like that. Can’t continue to hate the only person that’s going to outlast me and spend every second of my life running from him, when he in the end is the only one who can save me from myself. And…I can’t leave him behind like this anymore to hunt me. Cause that’s how he is…he’s afraid, Dani. He’s afraid of being alone. He just wants to be loved.” 

Dani looked down at the carpet, followed Danny’s eyes to a spot on the floor and tried getting her thoughts together. She wasn’t particular found of suddenly being forced to set herself in Vlad’s place and take an understanding in him like this. 

Most of the time, she didn’t even like to dwell on the fact that Danny himself was an immortal half-ghost, who had lived longer than even her granny and would continue to get older, despite his young and immature nature. 

Dani didn’t like being forced to address problems like these and preferred to think of Danny as her cousin and Vlad as the creep without deeper human feelings. 

“And you?” she asked quietly, afraid of the answer, “are you afraid to?” 

“What I fear has already happened to me more times than I can count,” Danny just said and frowned with his hair spilling over half his face. 

The truth hurting more than ever. 

“All I ever wanted…was to be accepted. And even though I have you and Valerie now, I’m bound to lose you one day and lose that to.” 

He lifted his eyes to her. No tears, but the blue eyes revealed something that she had tried to unseen for quite some time. The old man hiding behind the mask of youth. 

“That’s why I need Vlad, Dani,” he said and sorrow filled his voice, “cause no matter what I do and no matter how long I live, I can always count on his love for me. When I’m with him, I just feel like…like I don’t have to hide.” 

Dani watched him curl in on himself and turned her eyes to the screen where the movie had started again and ended up at the ending. 

Luke laid the dying Darth Vader on the ramp and listened to his plea for his son to listen to his last words, before taking of his helmet. Revealing that behind the dark mask, there had always been a man. 

A man who needed forgiveness. 

Danny looked up as she hugged him and after a second, Danny hugged her back and accepted her affection. 

“I’ll go talk with Vlad and we’ll figure something out,” she promised and Danny nodded quietly. 

He just wanted peace for once. 

He just wanted to be happy.


	47. Everybody seems to want to rule the world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> There once was a jazz singer named Kemberly McLain.  
>  _“It’s not that I don’t like being a jazz-singer,” she added and hummed to the melody, “but I’ll have this dream of creating something of myself. Making a name. Something people won’t forget. Something they’ll remember.”_  
>  _Danny just shrugged. He was saved from his gloomy thoughts, as she surprised him by picking out what seemed to be a ball of paper from the guitar’s sound-hole. Snatched a new piece of paper from the table behind her and stuffed it into the guitar, all while ignoring his curious expression._  
>  _“…what are you doing?”_  
>  _“Changing the sound, duh,” she replied and rummage through the insides of the guitar to arrange the balls of paper the way she wanted, “it’s gonna be my thing. My special sound.”_
> 
> And he told her to hold on for a page for him  
>  _She pulled him down to her height to kiss him on the lips. Danny caught the sight of Sam turning her head away in anger and smiled as Kember ended the deep kiss and whisper in his ear, “it’s hidden well, I’ll keep it safe until you get back to me.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unknowingly, he had sealed her fate  
>  _The pages held much ghostly essence and seemed to have strange powers, but nothing as strange as the one that had shown when Maddie had tried to eat one of his pages. The page hadn’t suffered any casualties and neither the cat, but Vlad had been stunned to find his dead cat return to him in the exact same fashion as his old housemaid had back in 1927. After a great deal of researched and a few (unwilling) volunteers, Vlad had come to discover that the pages held a curse. As a halfa, it didn’t affect him, but something could seem that the pages would secure its bearer a life after death simply after a mere touch. Something Walker and his henchman seemed to have suffered along with others. The only reason Vlad could think this to be any kind of benefit to the pages, would be a form of security for the pages to keep drifting between the ghost and living world._
> 
> And Danny made a truce with Vlad  
>  _Vlad leaned against the counter to watch him work, “I have planes of staying in Amity Park and as my employees, both Fright Night and Skulker will return to me through a portal I intend to install in my new lab. It will be used solely for the purpose of my own business in the Ghost Zone and as said, contact with other ghosts under my supervision. But in the honor of this truce I will ask for your permission to do so.”_  
>  _Danny took a second to debate and then nodded, “fine, but if you invite them through the portal, then they stay in your place and not one meter further. If one of them phases out of the house and into the city the truce is off.”_  
>  Vlad hid his smile. The term “phasing” and “his place” left a whole lot of loopholes to his advantage. Skulker could just walk out the door like a human and the truce would still be in function. How delightful.
> 
> And Dani promised to do the same  
>  _“That’s why I need Vlad, Dani,” he said and sorrow filled his voice, “cause no matter what I do and no matter how long I live, I can always count on his love for me. When I’m with him, I just feel like…like I don’t have to hide.”_  
>  _Dani watched him curl in on himself and turned her eyes to the screen where the movie had started again and ended up at the ending. Luke laid the dying Darth Vader on the ramp and listened to his plea for his son to listen to his last words, before taking of his helmet. Revealing that behind the dark mask, there had always been a man. A man who needed forgiveness._  
>  _Danny looked up as she hugged him and after a second, Danny hugged her back and accepted her affection._  
>  _“I’ll go talk with Vlad and we’ll figure something out,” she promised_
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hello you wonderful amazing people :D  
> How did Valentines day turn out for you?  
> If Good - nice for you. If bad - just remember that Valentine's day is a capitalist invention made up to make people spend more money on a certain date and nothing more. And if no one has said this to you then *hugs you through the screen* I love you dearly and wish you nothing but the best in this world  
> hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :)
> 
> * * *

_Year 1986, Vlad Masters’ mansion, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_

Dani wasn’t exactly a stray dog when it came to Amity Park's Ultra Posh Polter Heights neighborhood. 

Despite her indifference and often low thoughts of the richer citizens of her home town – if not rich people in general – Dani had to admit it was a nice neighborhood to live in. 

Moving in with Valerie was probably one of her best ideas to date and even though she sometimes missed the little townhouse in the lower Amity, the mansion she shared with her fiancé was to die for. 

If Dani closed her eyes, she could even remember the first time she stepped through those doors – or was carried through. Glued together by the lips and with hungry hands, Val had almost cracked her key in her eager to open the door, while molesting Dani against it. 

That none of the neighbors had seen them or heard Dani moan loud enough to wake the dead of the cemetery, was still a mystery to her. 

That people around them hadn’t figured them out before her ex had yelled it for the police and neighbors to hear, just proved that the citizens of Amity didn’t have that much skills when it came to observation. 

Jake had only discovered her affair with Val by chance anyway. Dani had tried dumping him several times before the actual break up, had told him to leave her alone, which he had just laughed at. 

Who breaks up with their boyfriend just to be alone? 

Dani had asked herself the same question and stayed with him without knowing what else to do. That she had been forced to hospitalize her granny soon after had just added to her personal bowl of hopelessness. 

Granny hadn’t been in any danger of dying, just weak after a cold – but as they had been advised to let her stay just to be sure it wasn’t an infection, Dani had returned home alone. 

Only to find that living alone with a head filled with worry and getting drained from long angry bickering on the phone every night, had turned out to be more than Dani could take. 

It had left her in a depression like state, where nothing really mattered, nothing could make her smile and even her job seemed grey. That’s why she hadn’t minded taking the freshmen on a tour to the local lab for the sake of education in the town’s ghostly history. 

It was one of those jobs none of the teachers wanted and it wasn’t hard to figure why. The teens had acted like a knot of unstable hormones, immature brats and been pretty much impossible to get a grip on the entire trip. 

Dani had been forced to bring the gym teacher along, just to make sure the kids didn’t sneak of the bus to get a day of and Mrs. Tetslaff had taken the chance to put her booming voice to good use. 

Dani had been sure she would lose her hearing before they even reached the lab and been more than thankful when they’d finally left the stuffy bus and met up with the tour guide of the lab. 

The tour hadn’t exactly been boring, not in Dani’s opinion, but apparently two of the more difficult students had figured they could get a better tour by running off to the closed part of the lab themselves. 

Dani had caught them sneaking of out of the corner of her eye and run after them – but to no use. They had vanished into thin air and she had suddenly found herself lost in the chase. 

Lost and frustrated, she had then wandered the hallways without a clue of what to do, or where she was and tried to seek out a map, a person, just anything to help her out and back to the tour route. 

Dani didn’t believe in destiny, but for some reason her feet her led her right into the arms of Axion’s CEO. 

Valerie Gray hadn’t even been supposed to be at the lab that day. She had just felt the need to check up on the lab’s newest hoverboard prototypes and found a dislocated high school teacher pressing her nose against the glass pane to the test location. 

Dani had been passing the windows to the place and stopped up to admire the displays of guns, boards and ghost hunting gadgets lying around on the platforms. 

When a hand had landed on her shoulder, Dani had been startled enough to jump and would had ended up landing on her rear if Valerie hadn’t caught her. Thinking back on it, Dani couldn’t help but scoff at the cliché meeting, but life was a cliché sometimes. 

Even clichés had some truth to them. 

Valerie had helped her back to her students, but now that Dani knew the layout of the lab, she knew that Valerie had taken her out on a suspicious long round before handing her back to civilization. 

Not that Dani would complain. 

They had smalltaked on the way, Dani had asked to the lab and Valerie to her teaching. Valerie had made her laugh – something she hadn’t done since granny had been hospitalized and for a time 

Dani had forgotten her problems and felt happy. That had changed when the school bus had honked at her and it was with a heavy heart that she had taken a seat. 

Valerie had waved to her with that secretive smile of hers and before Dani knew of it, the woman had called the school to arrange an open house event at the lab for Dani’s class to attend. 

After four school trips, a science conference and a ghost security of the school, Val had asked her to join her for lunch at a café and after that it had been a walk in the park, then dinner, then a drink after work and so on. 

Dani started spending all her nights at the lab after her granny returned from the hospital and stopped taken the phone at home no matter how many time it called. 

Jake had been furious and accused her of seeing another man – something that had made Dani laugh, but also realize her feelings for Valerie. 

The night Valerie finally broke the red tape and kissed her, Dani had kissed her back without a thought and come to understand why she had never felt right with Jake – or any other man for that matter. 

Valerie made her feel wanted, special and most of all loved. Dani couldn’t imagine being with anyone else and after Valerie’s proposal she wouldn’t have to. 

As Dani drove through the neighborhood of Amity’s riches families to find the Masters mansion, she couldn’t help but compare her own relationship with Valerie to Danny’s. 

After last night’s talk and Danny’s confessions, Dani couldn’t help but look different at Vlad Masters. 

She knew it was immature to regard the man as a villain – it was pretty hard not to – but even now that she had learned that the man loved Danny unconditionally and even had been ready to die for her cousin, Dani couldn’t help but groan at the fact that she was driving up his driveway to serve the man an apology. 

Last night’s promise had nagged her conscious all day and had almost been able to keep her sour, if it hadn’t been for the good news. 

Ember McLain was coming to town. 

Dani had bought the tickets for Ember’s grand tour back in the winter to make sure she and Val would get front seats just in time for their anniversary, but then the City Hall had banned the singers concert in Amity and Dani’s tickets had become worthless. 

All that had changed last night and Dani had gotten the good news, as she had arrived at work and found that almost the entire school had been transformed into a shrine of the blue haired singer. 

There hadn’t been a student without blue wigs or eyeliner in sight and while the rest of the teachers had scowled, Dani had been ecstatic as the singer herself had parked out front and given a preconcert just for the high school students. 

All the students and Dani included had ran out to stand around the idol and Dani had pulled one of the backstage people aside to make sure her tickets were still valid. 

There had been some commotion while she had been occupied, but it was first after the bus had left with the singer and her band, that Dani and the rest of the teachers had found that some of the students had attacked the English teacher, when he had tried to stop the concert. 

He had been too beat up to point out the students who had done it and Dani had watched the paramedics lifted him into the ambulance with some concern. 

No one had seen it happen other than Mrs. Tetslaff and if they were to believe her, all the students had jumped him on Ember’s orders. 

A weird thing to claim, but the gym teacher didn’t waver and none of them knew what to do about it. 

Dani had heard about the singer’s past concerts and how some of them had caused some brutal incidents, but people cramped together in a tight space around a scene always caused some damage – especially if people was fighting to get closer to the scene or were drunk. 

But none of the students had been drunk or that cramped… 

Dani sighed and decided to worry about it after she had talked with Vlad and parked outside his mansion. 

The large purple construction and well-kept front yard still looked as if it was trying to sell itself on the cover of some estate magazine and Dani had a feeling the inside wasn’t playing low on money either. 

There was no car parked outside the mansion, but Val’s place had a garage on the backside, so maybe it was the same case here – either way, the worst-case scenario was waiting in her car for when the mayor returned. 

Not that a missing car meant anything. She knew from her cousin that the older halfa mostly teleported when he needed to be somewhere else, or took a limo in case he needed to be seen by others. 

_Pompous prick._

She snorted at a rosebush and walked up to the front door. Pressed the doorbell. 

The door opened almost immediately, but instead of the man himself, it was a small woman in a housemaid uniform, who greeted her with cheery eyes and little dimples. 

“Aye?” 

“I’m here to see Vlad,” Dani replied without much glee and tried to hide the fact that the maid gave her the heebie jeebies. 

Danny hadn’t hide the fact from her that Vlad kept the ghost of his old housekeeper around and the ghost detector in her shoulder bag confirmed that this was in fact the infamous ghost maid. 

Despite the glamor, the air around the Irish woman was clammy and dusty at the same time. A slight smell of dirt and something…else. The way she smiled and stared at Dani made her feel like she was staring into the deeps of something wicket. 

Something that wasn’t supposed to return from what possible hole this soul had climbed up from. _I wonder how she died…_

“The Lord ‘as guests, me dear,” the maid explained, still overly sweet despite Dani’s missing tact and stepped aside for her to enter the mansion, “Oi 'ill let the Lord nu yer are 'ere as soon as he ‘as an ear free. Tea?” 

“I’m more sorta coffee person actually,” Dani admitted as she followed the ghost inside and took a seat in one of the expensive couches that made up the center of the large living room, “uhm, thank you.” 

The ghost smiled and hummed an Irish tune, as she went to the direction of what Dani supposed was the kitchen. 

She waited a few minutes like that, looked around the room and tried to prepare what she had come to say in her mind before Vlad returned from whatever guest he was talking to. 

Probably business or something like that, she guessed. Vlad was a businessman and mayor after all. Mayor business. Business mayor. Dani sighed in her boredom slash waiting room feeling and decided to stand and stretch her legs a bit. 

The large room echoed a bit and the tall grandfather clock by the wall ticking steadfast, creating a vacuum of useless time. The maid returned with her coffee, ignored Dani’s questions and left again. 

Dani sipped her coffee with a frown and wondered if the man was keeping her waiting just to piss her off. She frowned and sat down again, ran the apology through her head for the fifth time and tapped her foot in boredom. 

Maybe she should have asked the maid where to find a toilet… 

Dani bit her lip. Walking around someone’s house wasn’t very polite and if he caught her sneaking around, it would be a bad start on the apology she had come to deliver. But she really needed to pee… 

“Fuck it,” she muttered and stood. 

This mansion was semi Danny’s place to anyway and if she stumbled into someone, she could always ask them for direction to the nearest bathroom – it was the truth after all. 

Finding a toilet turned out harder than expected. 

“Bullshit mansion,” Dani sighed after closing yet another door. 

Either Vlad really liked books or those little libraries held fake books whose shelves could open up to hidden rooms or something, cause who the hell needed this amount of books? 

A _“bip”_ from her shoulder bag made Dani startled enough to almost jump through the roof and she looked down into her bag with raised eyebrows. 

The ghost detector Val always insisted she should carry around, was going crazy and Dani could already tell from the high-level ghost activity, that it wasn’t the ghost maid it had caught the ecto-signatur of. 

She looked around, wondering if Vlad had turned ghost in the house or something, when the sudden sound of steps made her turn to the double doors on her left. 

They were slightly ajar and as she moved closer, she could tell the doors led to the biggest of the libraries, the one with the large fireplace. 

Vlad Masters and something looking like a robot man was talking by the cold fireplace. She couldn’t hear their conversation, but both held grave expressions and seemed deep in discussion. 

The robot turned enough for her to see his green eyes and she recognized him as a ghost. Not one she had ever seen before, but if ghosts brought ghostly bikes with them after the death, why not a full metal suit? 

She rose an eyebrow as Masters placed his hand on a gold ornament on the fireplace and opened the football to reveal a red button. The fireplace cracked open sideways like an automatic door and revealed a staircase to something that could only be a large basement. 

Both of them stepped down before the entire fireplace slide back together and hid the fact that there had ever been a stair to begin with. 

But Dani knew. And she knew Vlad wasn’t supposed to bring ghosts into Amity. 

Should she call Valerie? Danny? 

She bit her lip and decided to do something stupid. She followed them down. 

“ – Ember isn’t the problem here, Skulker. She is exactly where she’s supposed to be.” 

Vlad Masters voice echoed up through the stairs and made it easy to eardrop while she sneaked down. 

Dani had no idea what the fuck the man was talking about – having expected death rays or world domination, something deadly she could bust his nuts for – but instead they seemed to be talking about the singer. 

It made zero sense to her and she sneaked closer to find a lab. The corner of the door made a nice cover, but if she wanted to do more than just listening, she would have to go in there. But for now, she just listened. 

“And the whelp? Do you have him on a leash somewhere?” the robot ghost asked with a gruff, but smooth voice. 

“Daniel has been taken care of,” Vlad replied offhand, “Fright Knight had some ghosts making havoc in the other end of the city, he won’t disturb us while we take the page from her.” 

Dani froze, tried to get some sense of the conversation. 

She didn’t know why, but for some reason Vlad and this ghost was after Ember…and a page? _What page?_ And they didn’t want Danny to know or possible stop them from doing so. _What is he planning?_ Having occupied him with some ghosts they had released down town… 

“Sounds promising,” the ghost grinned. 

“I should think so, I planned this after all, Skulker – now, I need you to stay out of the way when I attack her at Bucky’s Music Megastore. In case she escapes, I like her to believe she still have you on her side.” 

“You’re doing the hard work yourself?” 

“Oh, heavens no,” Vlad chuckled, “I’ll simply take the page from the guitar when she’s weakened. The hard work is little Miss. Gray’s job to fulfill. If she stays a good pawn like that, there will be a job for her when I take over the world.” 

The last made it clear to Dani that she needed to get out and stop this. Vlad was clearly up to some great scheme and somehow, he had gotten manipulated Valerie into help him with it. World domination was apparently really at stake. 

She had to stop this. 

“I gotta get to Danny,” she whispered and moved to sneak up the stairs and back out the mansion. Here blood froze to ice as Vlad’s voice sounded again. 

“Going already, Miss. Thornwood?” 

Dani didn’t take the second to respond or ask how the hell he was able to call her out like that and sprinted up the stairs. Only to be stopped by a cloud of green smoke and a fanged smirk. 

“I don’t think so, girl,” Plasmius said and send her down the three steps with a kick in the guts. 

   
 

Bucky’s Music Megastore wasn’t exactly one of Vlad’s more favored locations when it came to parts of Amity Park, but the third stored building did have the advantage when it came to an ambush. 

Alone the fact that the place was filled to the brim with rebellious teens and had several music stations managed camera men watching the scene like hawks, would be more than enough to keep the target on her toes what ghost powers was concerned. 

Ember would have to maintain her cover as a human, while he and Valerie Gray was free to use their entire arsenal of arms and powers. 

Her mask and reputation as a known ghost huntress would protect her, while he didn’t have to worry about flying around as Plasmius. 

He ignored some of the looks a group of teens send him and walked out of the building to mingle with the people on the sidewalk. 

He wasn’t blond to the fact that he didn’t fit the age group of Ember’s music and had only walked inside the store to get a last look of the balcony scene’s position. He transformed in an ally a street from the store and returned to the building’s roof invisible. 

A masked Miss. Gray, armed to the teeth, waited for him under the tall cardboard cutout of Ember with its arms crossed and signature pout. 

A distasteful way of self-advertising in Vlad’s personal opinion, but he suspected he never really would be able to understand the music of this era. Alone the ghost-girls outfit was to vulgar for his taste. 

Young people these days. 

“All in order, Red huntress?” he asked calmly as he turned visible next to her and the woman charged her guns as an answer. 

“Just give me the word and I’m ready,” she replied cocky and made the halfa smirk. 

“Very well, Ember will be entering the balcony in less than fifteen minutes. I suggest you find your hiding spot and wait for my employee’s signal.” 

“You’re sure that medieval ghost is a good idea to bring to a fight like this?” Valerie asked a bit doubtful, “I usually don’t fight with players I don’t know or have fought beside before.” 

Vlad could respect that, but didn’t have time for her questioning his plan, “believe me, the Fright Knight is more than capable of finishing the job. He will take her fellow ghost band out while you and I go for the head singer. Just stick to the plan and everything will sort itself out.” 

Valerie didn’t get the time to comment on that, as the screams of the excitement rose to a new level below them and made the people on the streets fight to get inside the building. 

Apparently, the star had entered the building. 

“I believe you have a job to do,” Vlad drawled and received a nod from the woman, as she activated her hoverboard and jumped on to it. 

“I won't let you down, Masters,” she promised sternly and left the roof in a jump. 

Vlad doubted she would and picked up his brick phone before phasing down the building. 

Skulker took it immediately and Vlad couldn’t help but thrive in the professionality that surrounded him, “is the little nuisance still in check?” 

_“If you mean tied up and ready for a trip to dream land, then yes,”_ Skulker replied and both ignored the angry rant in the background. 

Miss. Thornwood certainly had a mean tongue. 

“Excellent, and the ghosts keeping Phantom occupied?” 

_“Still downtown last I checked. The whelp’s chasing them through the streets as we speak.”_

Vlad smirked at that, as he began phasing though the roof and stopped his descent in order to float invisible above the balcony scene, “just make sure she’ll stay put until I return – call me if Phantom change course.” 

He ended the call and watched as the audience began to crowd the ground floor.

   
 

 _“Just make sure she’ll stay put until I return – call me if Phantom change course.”_

Skulker lowered his hand from the phone integrated in his helmet, as his employer ended the call and turned back to his work at the lab counter. 

Behind him, Dani was struggling with her restrains and tried to bite over the green ecto-rope that bound her to the chair in sheer anger. 

“You can’t keep me her! I have rights, you stupid robot freak!” 

Skulker rolled his green eyes and turned to her with annoyance, “you know who says things like that? Prisoners. Now shut up and go to sleep before I lose my patients. You’re annoying.” 

“Hey, No! Stop!” she shouted as he moved to her with a suspicious looking syringe, “what the hell is that even!” 

“Oh this?” he asked and showed the syringe to her face with a sudden look of excitement, “this is just a little formula I make for hunting. Makes it easier to bring my prey back to my lair and store them insides cages or hunting grounds without harming them on the way. It can even be used for smoky sleep bombs if you inhale it. It will keep you sleeping for a couple of hours, while we wait for Plasmius to return and he decides with to do with you.” 

“Can’t wait,” she droned and tried to turn her head away from the needle, “uhm, how about you don’t use that on me and we talk instead?” 

“And why would Skulker do that?” 

_Oh my God, he’s talking in third person now._ “Eh, because babysitting an unconscious and possible drooling human tied to a chair is boring?” 

The ghost cyborg just scoffed, “better than babysitting a ghost huntress trying to exploit every possible chance of escaping and risking losing the trust Plasmius have put in me.” 

Dani laughed forced, “are you crazy?! Look at me. Do I look like I can escape this? My hoverboard and suit is in the trunk of my car outside. I have no weapons on me and right now I’m tied to a solid steel chair with ecto-ropes. Plus, you outweigh me both in ability and strength, not to forget you’re pretty much twice my size. What kinda threat could a little woman possible be to a big scary ghost like you?” 

Skulker took a second to consider it and Dani sighed in relief, as he sat down on a chair in front of her, after placing the syringe on the lab counter beside them. 

“Alright, now speak, human female. Entertain Skulker.” 

Dani grinned nervous. She didn’t really have a plan per se, but the ecto-blaster disguised as a lipstick (well, it was both, Valerie was always in a need of some blush and had designed them to be usable makeup – each with a different scent and taste) could be her way out. 

Dani had gained a habit of walking around with the device in case her fiancé needed to freshen up her makeup, or if Dani got into situation like this – but mostly the first. 

Said blaster was currently in the pocket of her jeans and so far, her wiggling had gotten her hands nowhere near it. Vlad had stripped her of her bag, but ignored the blaster, probably believing it to be an actual lipstick. 

_Granny bless you Val. But how to make this idiot loosen the ropes?_

“Soooo, what do you do for fun, Skulker? Ride bikes? Nice leather pants by the way.” 

The cyborg scoffed superior, “Skulker has no time for such machinery. I hunt and as the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter, there is no man or ghost who can hope to be my equal.” 

Dani had a pretty good idea what hunter – sorry _huntress_ who could take this clown down and send a silent prayer to her fiancé. 

“Wow, really?” she replied with what she hoped was convincing interest, “you know, as a huntress myself, I guess it’s kinda honor to meet you. Wanna share hunting stories?” 

That seemed to do the trick. To her luck – and soon horror – Skulker seemed to be full of things to brag about and took her down the lane of the one blood freezing story after another about the poor creatures he had enslaved or skinned alive. 

_Think, Danielle, THINK! How to get out of this mess? Okay focus – you got one weapon…wait, no two!_

Her eyes darted to the abandoned syringe on her left and a complicated, but hopefully good plan started to form in her mind. Meanwhile, Skulker didn’t seem to have noticed his audience’s tension and continued to babble on about his recent kills. 

“ – and then I hang the remains on my bedroom wall, there wasn’t much left, this was a rather difficult prey. Not very cooperative, mostly snarling and trying to eat my leg, but Skulker got it fixed with some metal plates. Now, the ectoplasm on the other hand I stored in the fridge –” 

“Oh my god, SO fascinating – hey could you help a girl out?” she interrupted and batted her eyelashes with a cute smile, “could you be a gentleman and hand me the lipstick in my pocket? These ropes are too tight for my girly weak hands to reach it.” 

Skulker got a look of suspicion and Dani took the charm up to the next level, “please? My lips have gone dry and I can’t concentrate on listening to all the incredible stories you have to tell. And they’re sooo interesting. Pretty please with sugar on top?” 

The large cyborg ghost hummed for a long second and made Dani sweat in anticipation. If he didn’t hand her the lipstick, she had no chance of getting out of these ropes and execute the rest of this fragile plan. 

She almost lost her breath as he leaned forward to pat her pockets. 

The little light of hope was brutally crushed, as Skulker, instead of handing the lipstick to her like a normal person, lifted it to her lips. 

_Well fuck me gentle with a chainsaw…_

She realized this had been a terrible plan. Of course, he wouldn’t place it in her hands – they were tied up in her lap and wasn’t reaching her face any time soon. 

She leaned her head forward with defeat stinging in her chest and turned her head from side to side to get the makeup across her lips. 

The smell of cherries and feeling of the red paste on her lips made her thoughts run to Valerie and almost brought forth the tears. What would Vlad do with her when he returned? There was no way he could let her go, not if he wanted Danny to remain his boyfriend. 

She had no idea how all this page and Ember stuff was connected with world domination, but since Vlad insisted on keeping Danny out of it, her cuz probably knew the bigger picture. 

Vlad was crazy and Dani wasn’t naive enough to hope for a painless solution to his problem. She had to go. 

He couldn’t keep her alive. 

The truth hurt, but she couldn’t come up with one good reason why he would keep her alive. 

He might have allowed her to live for now, but he had been ready to go into action elsewhere and if she was him, she too would probably have left her to live a little longer – for now at least. 

If she just disappeared both Danny and Valerie would search for her without stop – something Vlad couldn’t risk. 

But if Danielle Thornwood died in a simple accident with witnesses, or committed suicide with a convincing note for her loved ones to find…then who would suspect Vlad? 

All her horrific visions of walking out in front of a bus while possessed by a duplicate, or hanging herself from a beam with a forged suicide note about how life had turned dark after granny’s death, was suddenly wiped from her mind when Skulker dumped the lipstick in her lap. 

“Now, about that behemoth I tried to skin in one piece…” 

Dani didn’t even pretend to listen. Just stared at the ecto-blaster in her lap and curled her fingers around it slowly. 

_The Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter, my skinny little ass._

Skulker continued to be obvious, as she turned the lipstick in her hand and calculated the distance and how many seconds it would take her to get to the syringe before her jailer. 

Enough she guessed. 

The green laser blast surprised them both, as Dani had underestimated the strength of the laser and almost shot herself in the face when she turned the lipstick upwards and cut all the rope in one shot. 

Skulker shot his hand out to grip her neck, but Dani had predicted this and leaped to the left towards the lab counter. She was half across the counter when Skulker got hold of her hair and pulled her back in one hard tuck, making tears spring in her eyes from the pain. 

She screamed out in a spontaneous battle-cry born from desperation and hammered the syringe down into his metal face. 

The needle didn’t scratch the metal, or penetrate the green glass that was his eyes, instead the syringe cracked into a million splinters by the impact and splattered a mix of Dani’s blood and the glass barrel’s content across his face. 

The two liquors seeping into the nose hole and mouth of his metal head. 

“You little bitch!” he roared and send her slamming down to the floor head first with a fist of iron. 

Dani cried out by the meeting with the floor and had to take a second to get her head to stop throbbing, before she could turn and get back on her shaking legs. 

The trip down the stairs from before had fucked her up pretty good and made it hard to move without something going crazy with pain. 

Now she could add a black eye to the collection of bruises. 

Behind her, Skulker was fighting a losing fight to get his helmet of and stay conscious, but the fumes and drops of the sleep poison that had found way into his tiny control room had already done its job and all he mustered was to activate his tiny ejector seat and get out of his metal suit. 

Dani gasped and covered her face as something green in a small chair shot past her face and hurried to get up the stairs to the secret entrance to the lab. She needed to warn Val and Danny. 

But most of all, she needed her suit and hoverboard in the car.

   
 

Danny watched the ghost bike driving down the streets at full speed with a mix of annoyance and curiosity. 

Kitty and Johnny13 had been taking him on a tour through inner Amity for over a little over an hour now and so far, there had been almost no fighting, only pursuing. 

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say you two lovebirds where keeping me occupied or something,” he called after them and tried getting them in a swing, but lost them, as Johnny took another neck breaking turn to avoid him. 

“Oh my God, he’s on to us!” Kitty shrieked and clung to her boyfriend’s chest. 

“Quit it!” Johnny sneered and speeded up, “you might as well take him to the concert now you’re at it!” 

Danny rose an eyebrow and pushed himself to the limit to get up on the side of them. Somehow or with someone’s help, Johnny had tune-up his bike to reach a speed level equal Danny’s own and Danny didn’t like it one bit. 

At first, he had just thought this would be another simple ghost hunting job, when some police cars had lead him to the scene, but now…something wasn’t _right_. 

“What concert?” he asked, intrigued and a little worried he would have to race to get to a new ghost already, “is one of your friends playing or something?” 

“None of your business, Ghost-man,” Johnny shouted and speeded up enough to lift the front wheel of the bike. 

Danny let out a yelp and was fast enough to straighten up, before he smacked flat against the office building in front of them. 

Johnny howled in wild glee with a high-pitched screaming Kitty on the back, as the bike drove up the building vertically with Danny close behind. 

“Just tell me already, Alain Prost –and slow down, you're going over the speed limit!” Danny shouted against the wind and followed the bike as it reached the top of the office building and kept going straight up, “and the height limit!” 

“Watch out, Johnny!” Kitty yelled and made him steer to the side seconds before they would have collided with a third player. 

A red huntress had appeared on the top of the building and charged her weapon, aiming at the wheel of the bike. 

“The higher they get, the harder they fall!” Dani warned through her mask and fired her ecto-bazooka. 

Both ghosts screamed as the bike was hit head on and started falling down towards the street. Danny was going to follow them, but Dani stopped him by flying her hoverboard in front of him. 

“Forget about them! You have to stop Vlad from taking over the world!” 

Danny immediately forgot all about the ghosts and stared at his grandniece with open surprise, “stop _who_ from doing _what_ now!?” 

“It’s a long story and we don’t have time!” Dani shouted behind her mask and ripped it off with a scared face, revealing a black eye and bruised lip, “I went to apologize to Vlad and found him plotting with his ghost goons in a secret lab, basement – something. He’s going to take some sorta page from Ember the big singer and he’s using Valerie to do it – you have to do something!” 

Danny tried to process it all at once, but still found himself incapable of understanding. Vlad was hunting a page! Here? With Skulker and Fright Knight!? Outside his mansion!? 

_He has broken the truce,_ Dan whispered with a chuckle, _classic Vlad. And what was it about those pages he was missing to complete the journal? How many? – Two?_

“He lied to me…” Danny whispered and felt something inside of him go numb. 

Vlad had played him all this time. He had just played a game. 

Dani watched him with deep concern, maybe even fear of being punished for being the messenger of this or distrusted, but Danny was far beyond questioning her words. 

She didn’t know about Sojourn’s pages or Vlad’s goons. She couldn’t had made this up even if she had wanted to. 

She had been right to distrust Vlad from the start. He had been blind. 

What a fool he had been. 

“Where?” he asked with an emotionless voice she didn’t recognized. 

Dani pointed south without hesitation, “Bucky’s Music Megastore – I’ll get there when I’ve –” 

But Danny didn’t bother to hear the rest and shot past her faster than the speed of light. 

“…caught these two…” she finished slowly and gazed after her granduncle. 

She could only hope his heart would one day heal.

   
 

Vlad was waiting for his moment. 

Below him on the scene, Ember, once known as Kemberly McLain, was introduced to her balcony scene by a tower of video screens all fill up from the bottom row, left to right, showing a collective picture of the star singing on her microphone. 

The music video filled the store with the sound of her single and opened the show for the actual undead singer to grace the balcony from a cloud of purple smoke. 

The teens of Amity Park screamed and cheered for her on the top of their lungs and was showered in the spotlights coming from the balcony. 

Like an Egyptian goddess, Ember watched her loyal slaves from the balcony, flanked by to giant cutouts of herself, not unlike old stone statues to her honor. Vlad couldn’t help but envy her the power she had gained, but knew her plan for world domination was a simple pipe-dream. 

Yes, she could enslave teens with her siren voice and get stronger from the power of their devotion by chanting, but it wouldn’t last. 

He could let her have this for now and crush her later for old times’ sake, when he had unlocked the power of the journal and gained access to the Elshwhereness. Which brought him to the next phase of his grand scheme. 

Vlad tore his gaze from the teen idol below him on the balcony to see through the eyes of his duplicate and made one of them give Fright Knight the signal. 

Another duplicate made sure Valerie was up to her part of the game and slowly, he began to decent towards Ember. How foolish of her not to bring bodyguards. The singer didn’t seem to sense the danger she was in and threw tickets down to her fans. 

“TELL ME WHO YOU LOVE!” 

The crowd below rewarded her with a loud chanting and she raised her fists in triumph and power rush, as her blue ponytail of fire grew larger and wilder. Vlad landed to stand behind her and reached into his tunic. The guitar was hanging unguarded on her back. 

The time was now. 

Vlad pulled on the ghost gauntlets and clenched his fists. The long ecto-driven claws turned purple with power. 

The singer’s power was shorted out as her fans suddenly stopped chanting in the confusion that was unleashed among them. 

Ember blinked confused and leaned over the balcony rail to see her band members getting shot down one by one and gasped as a woman clad in a red suit flying on a hoverboard, send a missile towards the stereo. 

The crowd and their idol yelped in panic and covered their eyes, as the machinery blew up and send sparkles all over the place. The many screens went dead and killed the show effectively. 

The teen idol felt her hair smolder and her flame grow weaker, as the teen’s attention had left her in favor of watching the destruction and possible assassination on their singer. 

Valerie shot up into the air in front of her and charged a new gun with a strong pose, “guess what, everybody! The leader of the best ghost huntresses in Amity Park is here! And that means this ghost is about to get her BUTT HANDED TO HER!” 

_She really is quite good at this_ , Vlad thought to himself and reached forward to get to the guitar while the singer was occupied. Maybe he wouldn’t need to shoot Ember down after all. 

“Oh great, a critic,” Ember drawled and made her hair return to standard length, as the huntress shot forward to get to the balcony, “then maybe you’ll like my new song BETTER!” 

Valerie cursed and shot out of the way as Ember pulled the guitar to the front and turned one of the dials to power waves. She was seconds from making a strum, when Vlad lifted his hand to knock her out with a blast to the back of the head, but was then beaten to the punch. 

A green blast hit the singer in the front and send her knocking back into Vlad. The halfa was fast enough to turn intangible and keep his cover, while Ember feel hard on her back and looked up to see a whitehaired halfa with glowing green eyes and flaring hands land on the balcony. 

“Hey! Do you take requests? How about ‘Beat It’?” Danny sneered and took a step forward. 

“How about I just lay down a few power chords instead, dipstick!” she shouted in anger, as she pushed her hair out of her face and raised her hand with the pick to strum in his direction. 

Danny’s eyes widened. Not because of the attack coming his way, but because he had seen her face. 

The color of hair was all wrong and the ponytail new, but her bangs were just as the time long ago they had been a deep lush brown and without ghostly life. The eyes that had once been human and kind, where now toxic green and framed by a hard eyeliner job. 

So unlike the soft theatrical eyeshadow that had once graced her living face. 

Danny hadn’t loved this woman like he had loved Samantha Manson, or taken her as a lover like he had once done with Desiree, but that didn’t change the regret that had followed the loss of her. 

A death he hadn’t been able to prevent. 

And now he would come to witnesses the consequences of it. 

“Kemberly?” 

The ecto-based blast of her guitar hit him like a wrecking ball in the chest and send him over the railing. The ghostly siren giggled nefarious and hovered in the open air, clearly not caring about keeping a human appearance anymore. 

She strummed again, making her blue hair wraps all around her in a flame spiral as she vanished from view. The spiral thinned away into nothing, leaving an invisible Vlad behind with a crumbled page safe in his gloved hand. 

The power of the page making his fire core vibrate and he packed away the gauntlets with an expression of victory. It had taken him years to find the page and now that he had it, the hunt almost seemed satisfying. 

After Daniel had left New York and the page had seemed to cease to exist, Vlad had believed Daniel, or supposing his kidnapper, to be the culprit. 

But in the absence of his soulmate, the page had suddenly return to the surface of the earth a year ago, when a ghost had been attacked by a spirit going by the name “Ember” in the Zone. 

Apparently, the ghost had been a page hunter himself and followed an energy pull near him and found the spawned ghost girl clutching a guitar. 

When he had tried to take it away from her, she had shown a strength far greater than any new spawned ghost should have been capable of possessing and shot him unconscious long enough for her to escape. 

Vlad had gotten wind of this a few days later and Skulker had hunted down the singer to reveal her identity and destination. Connected the puzzle pieces. 

Daniel must have handed the page over to the little jazz singer as a safe keeper before her death. 

By some strange means, the girl had believed the sound hole of her guitar to be the safest hiding spot for her beloved hero’s treasure and taken it with her in death, when she had been killed in the fire. 

An unfortunate move to do, when the barest touch of one of Sojourn’s pages always promised it’s keeper a cursed afterlife, as well as a magical safe precaution to prevent a page from destruction should its keeper die with it on them. 

And now it was all his. 

One page left. 

Vlad hurried to hide the page inside his cape, as Daniel returned to the balcony with a desperate look and sought for the singer. Vlad hid his ghost signature well and ignored the cheering of the crowd below. 

There could only be one reason why Daniel was here. 

Skulker had failed. The little rat to Danielle had escaped. 

Daniel send the teens below him a despising look, probably angry that they had turned their favor of him to their idol and worshipped her despite the fact she had just revealed herself as an evil ghost to them. 

Vlad could only pity him and his love for these brainless humans, and gazed after him with concern, as the halfa phased through the ceiling to follow the ghost signature of the singer. 

Vlad sighed before following. It was time for him to come out of hiding and face Daniel once again. 

He found both Daniel and Ember on the roof. Apparently, Daniel had fallen to the need of helping the ghost instead of attacking. 

“ – I know it’s hard, but you have to remember! You name was Kemberly McLain, you sang at Vice End as a Jazz singer in the 1920’s. It’s me! Danny!” 

“Like I care,” Ember scoffed with a nasty grin and swung her guitar at him, “who cares about human lives anyway? You and jazz music can stick it and get out of my hair!” 

Daniel dodged the guitar and grabber her hands to wrestle her down, clearly at the advantage with his super strength, while she fought to get her hands free in order to strum again. 

“Get of me!” 

“You wanted to be something bigger than a jazz singer and become the star of New York – you had dreams and friends. I was your friend!” 

Vlad was ready to interfere when a suddenly chanting from below the building appeared. The sound of hundreds of Amity teens shouted in unison, watching the fight from the sidewalk. 

_“Ember! Ember! Ember! Ember! Ember!_ ” 

A rush of power filled the singer and made her blue hair blow into a terrifying flame taller than before. Daniel’s effortless wrestle suddenly turned into a real wrestle, as Ember braided her fingers into his and placed her extra power into the match. 

“Chanting…” the younger halfa winced, “makes her stronger…” 

“You got that right, baby pop,” she grinned and breathed in the scent of raw power, “and the more kids chanting – the stronger I get!” 

Danny groaned as she forced him back an inch and pressed on with a wild expression, hungry for victory, power and the ghostly obsession of becoming a star. 

“And if you think I’m strong now, just wait until midnight! When my concert goes global and the whole world’s chanting my name! Then you’ll all be my slaves!” 

“Not on my fucking watch!” Valerie shouted and slammed the tip of her board into the singer, taking her with her over the edge of the roof. 

Vlad dropped his invisibility, as the Fright Knight joined the fight from below and helped the huntress keep the empowered singer in check. 

"Oh very good,” Vlad smiled and rubbed his hands satisfied, “all the pawns doing exactly what they are supposed to – now, where is my king?” 

By the sound of his voice, Daniel had turned around and locked onto his eyes with a look that could destroy an entire civilization and still leave the few survivors radioactive for generations. 

Vlad raised his hands with a weak smile, well knowing that he would have to explain himself – and that fast. 

“Oh, I know this seems like betrayal from my part, but really, if you just look at it from my perspecti–” 

The fist hit his face square on and send him straight into the air. His back was spared the fall down the building as he hit the backside of the tall cutout of the cross-armed singer. 

Its ropes snapped and send the giant falling flat on the building with half of it hanging from the edge. 

Vlad had barely gotten out of the now Plasmius-shaped dent in right leg of the cutout, before two angry fists had grabbed the front of his suit and pulled his face to face with the angry scowl of Danny Phantom. 

“You despicable lying piece of cheese!” Daniel shouted and headbutted him with bared fangs and burning eyes of green and blue. 

Vlad groaned from the hit and hurried to grab the other’s shoulders to keep him close, but also out of headbutting distance. 

“Danie-Danny, listing to me!” 

“Don’t _'Danny’_ me!” the halfa screamed and slammed him into the concrete of the rood, “I trusted you! I gave myself over to you! I took you back and gave you everything _and still you fuck me over!_ ” 

Vlad threw a hand up to block the hit aiming for his face. 

“How can you do this to me!?” 

The next hit got in and send Vlad’s head knocking back into the cardboard and roof beneath, gaining it a large crack. 

“How can you take everything and still want _more!!!!?_ ” 

Vlad scrunched his eyes together, expecting another hit in the face, but then lost his breath, as two drops fell on his cheeks and he opened his red eyes to stared up into the pained eyes that was his soulmate. Tears falling from his blue and green eyes. 

He had never been more beautiful. 

“Why can’t I be enough for you?” Daniel asked with a voice so raw it seemed unreal. 

Vlad felt a sting of regret, asked himself if this had all been a mistake, “Danny…” 

The moment was interrupted, as Valerie Gray chose this second to come crashing down and land on the roof, her board barely catching her before she met with the surface. 

“Valerie!” Daniel shouted and leaped of Vlad to get to his unconscious friend. 

“My pawn!” Vlad gasped and received a fuming look from the other, “I mean, poor Valerie!” 

“I’ll end you after this,” Daniel whispered dangerously low, placed Valerie in a resting position and shot into the air to take Valerie’s place in the fight against the still growing ghost above them. 

Vlad clenched his teeth and tried to come up with a solution to this problem. He had believed himself to be able to talk Daniel back to some sense, but apparently, he had underestimated the other’s anger. 

He walked towards the unconscious huntress to check if she was still alive, head lost in thought of what to do. The sound of a small set of boots landing behind him brought him back to the situation at hand. 

“Get away from her, Plasmius,” Danielle sneered and the halfa turned around to find her with an ecto-gun aiming at his head. 

He stood slowly and stepped away from the unmoving huntress, watched in silence as Danielle hurried around him to get to her fiancé to check on her condition, gun still aiming at him. 

“You’re going down for this,” she sneered and stood to stand between him and Valerie, “I’ve told Danny everything! He knows you’re a monster now and he’ll kill you if you’re lucky!” 

Vlad wasn’t going to lose face to the likes of her and regained his scornfully smirk, “I don't think so girl. You and that little gun is no match for me. And she's beaten. Daniel will soon realize he can’t go back to live without me and return to join my side when all it settled. This is over.” 

A haunting wail made both of them look up to see Daniel use his ghostly wail on Ember and Vlad took one step to the left to avoid having the singer landing on him, as Ember McLain fell hard enough to make a crater in the roof. 

Both the Fright Knight and Daniel landed back on the roof of take her out and the battered singer rose from the concrete with an angry scowl and ruined eyeliner, “you’re gonna regret that! All of you!” 

“Oh what stupidity is this?” Vlad asked, tired of this whole affair with the singer now that he had the page safe in his pocket. 

“She’s just confused because she doesn’t remember!” Danny sneered at him and unconsciously made ice form under his boots in sheer anger, “the only stupid thing about this entire mess is your need for that fucking journal! How long have you known about Kemberly becoming a ghost!?” 

“Daniel now is not the time for this conversation, just kill or banish her and we can sort things out.” 

“Fuck you and fuck your lies! This is the end of us – I’m not taking you back ever again, you hear me!?” 

They continued to like that, forgetting all about the rest of the roof and below them, Ember snorted and send them a mocking look, “aww, you two sounds just like an old couple.” 

An idea seemed to have popped into her head and she rose with the guitar ready and a nasty grin on her face, “and nothing distracts old people more than love, amiright?” 

Dani widened her eyes, as Ember changed the setting on her guitar from the wave symbol to a pink heart and stood to face the two halfas still arguing without a clue. 

“And I need to keep you busy for the next eight hours,” Ember grinned lowly and raised the pick, “I have more than just music for you. Now that they’re chanting my name, my music can affect ghosts! 

How about a love song!” 

“Danny, no!” Dani shouted, but was too late to stop it. 

The pink beam shot out from the guitar and caught Danny right on, while Vlad had been fast enough to teleported by instinct. 

Vlad reappeared out at the end of the fallen cutout hanging from the buildings edge a second later and patted himself to see if he had been hit by anything. Apparently not, but he hadn’t been the only one in the line of fire. 

He looked up in fear to find Daniel lying on the roof and feared the worst when he found that the other had turned back human. 

“Daniel!?” 

The younger halfa turned his head towards him and made the older halfa widening his eyes in surprise. The loathing glare he had been send just a second before, had now been wiped off clean and replaced with a gaze of pure…did he dare say it? 

Love? 

Ember lifted into the air, satisfied by her work, “well, I think I’ll leave the new couple alone. Ciao, babies!” 

Dani shot an ecto-blast from her gun after her, but Ember had already vanished in a cloud of smoke and left once again. Dani gritted her teeth in disappointment and turned to her cousin with worry. 

“New couple? What the hell did she mean by that? Danny you’re okay?” 

But Daniel ignored her. Instead he had stood to step unto the cutout and walk towards Vlad. Making the cutout tip dangerously, as he walked without a care and stretched his hands towards Vlad. 

Vlad eyed him in growing confusion, “Daniel, for the love of God speak to me, are you hurt?” 

“All hurt will stop as soon as I’m in your arms,” Daniel sighed dreamingly and took another dangerous step towards him and the fall of the building. 

“I beg your pardon?” Vlad blurted, more confused than ever and stood slowly to hover an inch above the cutout. 

Daniel just giggled like a love-structed school girl and send Vlad a honest smile, “wow. I just never realized how handsome you are when we’re about to fall of a building.” 

Dani felt a need to vomit, while the Fright Knight just ignored the scene. As far as he could see, his master wasn’t in any danger, as he could just fly from the cutout and the other halfa wasn’t attacking him per se. 

No need to interfere. 

Vlad on the other hand couldn’t take his eyes of the sight before him. In the last few weeks, Daniel had looked upon him in many different ways – annoyance, playfulness, warmth, happiness and gentle caring. 

But never in his life had he been given a gaze so obviously that of love. It was simply glorious to behold and Vlad couldn’t believe he was the person showered in it. 

The fact that this had possible something to do with that “love song” Ember McLain had hit Daniel with, didn’t even concern the man, as he hovered to meet the other on the middle of the tipping cutout. 

“Well now you have me,” Vlad said slowly and watched the other closely, frighten and hopeful of what the other would do now. 

To his great relief, Daniel didn’t change from his state of puppy love sickness and just pulled him down for a passionate kiss. Dani gawked and made Valerie wake up, dazed and confused. 

“Danny stop it!” Dani shouted in panic and lifted her gun without knowing what to do, “it’s a spell, you hate him!” 

“How can I hate him?” Daniel asked in mild surprise and caressed Plasmius’ face with blue eyes full of blind devotion, “he’s perfect in every way and the love of my life.” 

Vlad lost his breath at that and held the hand against his cheek with a blooming smile. Daniel returned his smile tenfold and then rested his head on Vlad’s chest without hesitation. 

Vlad laid his arms around him, trying to fully understand the gift he had just been bestowed. 

Daniel loved him. Fully and unconditionally. He had the page and was a step closer to completing the journal. World domination was now surely at hand and with that…Daniel beside him as his prince. 

He had finally _won_. 

Dani stared in horror as the two halfas embraced and screamed her cousin’s name, as a cloud of green smoke engulfed them both, but to no use. 

They were gone.


	48. Let Vlad be a fruitloop in a world of cheerios

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic
> 
> Danny was taken in to the station after a crime was comitted  
>  _Nichols could feel he was getting a little curious, "let’s make a deal then, you tell me your little story and I let you leave if its good."_  
>  _The boy was still only here because he was the closest they could come to a temporary suspect at the crime scene. Someone had emptied one of the casino shark’s pockets and all suspects had been thrown out to random stations. The boy was really just a random bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the lack of valid ID was alarming still. Nichols checked the report again. He had already been informed that a second suspect had been taken into the interrogation room next door and he hoped Miller had more luck with his suspect than him._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _"I got a call from officer Clint, he said they're almost done at the casino and will be wrapping up thing in an hour or two if they get the last witnesses to cooperate."_   
>  _"Alright," Nichols replied, "did he say anything about a suspect being found?"_   
>  _"Well, the thing about it being a case of card counting has been turned down as being a ruse. Cheif has found some evidence that seems to lean more on it being a card game gone wrong. Apparently, a lucky guest won a great deal of money and the patron’s searching for an easy way out to get the money back in their pockets. If that’s true, we might stand with a case of loan sharks using police force to steal money from an innocent casino guest."_
> 
>  
> 
> And once again Danny is under a spell  
>  _“Last time we spoke you wanted the pages burned,” Vlad retorted and moved up to the younger halfa, “you were heavy with guilt and cried for a human who had tried to kill you. You wanted to die for a city of humans that barely knew or loved you.”_  
>  _Dan scoffed, “the staff made me see clearly. The dark side cleanses all. It will cleanse you to.”_  
>  _Vlad grabbed the younger man’s shoulders to shake him violently, “snap out of it, Daniel. You’re under a spell!” he jelled and slapped the man across the cheek, “this isn’t you, I know you’re somewhere in there – I know you!”_  
>  _Vlad knew he sounded desperate, but didn’t care. This wasn’t the Daniel he loved and adored. The Daniel he knew had been replaced by some hellish shell. Had taken the body of his badger and filled it with nothing but empty darkness that held no life, happiness or laughter. The face of the empty and lifeless Daniel he had meet in prison made Vlad clench his eyes in pain and the years of regret threatened to tear him apart at the seams._
> 
> And Valerie made an invention  
>  _Valerie shook her head and turned the last screw of her invention, before she suddenly held it in front of Danny. He crocked an eyebrow as it suddenly blinked with a little green light, as if activated. Valerie said noting, before she then threw it out the window._  
>  _Danny snorted, “I got a trashcan you know.”_  
>  _“I know,” she replied calmly and smirked as the invention came flying back through the window and knocked Danny right in the forehead._  
>  _Dani spit her coffee in laughter and Danny rubbed his head with a scowl, “a boomerang, how clever.”_  
>  _“Thank you,” she smiled and admired her own work, “I call it the ‘Axion Booo-merang’. Other than finding ghosts, it will probably come in handy with smart mouthed dorks.”_
> 
> Meanwhile, Dani and Skulker has a hunter showdown  
>  _She was half across the counter when Skulker got hold of her hair and pulled her back in one hard tuck, making tears spring in her eyes from the pain. She screamed out in a spontaneous battle-cry born from desperation and hammered the syringe down into his metal face. The needle didn’t scratch the metal, or penetrate the green glass that was his eyes, instead the syringe cracked into a million splinters by the impact and splattered a mix of Dani’s blood and the glass barrel’s content across his face. The two liquors seeping into the nose hole and mouth of his metal head._  
>  _“You little bitch!” he roared and send her slamming down to the floor head first with a fist of iron. Dani cried out by the meeting with the floor and had to take a second to get her head to stop throbbing, before she could turn and get back on her shaking legs. Behind her, Skulker was fighting a losing fight to get his helmet of and stay conscious, but the fumes and drops of the sleep poison that had found way into his tiny control room had already done its job and all he mustered was to activate his tiny ejector seat and get out of his metal suit._
> 
> And at last, Ember puts Danny under a love spell  
>  _Vlad lost his breath at that and held the hand against his cheek with a blooming smile. Daniel returned his smile tenfold and then rested his head on Vlad’s chest without hesitation. Vlad laid his arms around him, trying to fully understand the gift he had just been bestowed._  
>  Daniel loved him. Fully and unconditionally. He had the page and was a step closer to completing the journal. World domination was now surely at hand and with that…Daniel beside him as his prince.  
>  _Dani stared in horror as the two halfas embraced and screamed her cousin’s name, as a cloud of green smoke engulfed them both, but to no use._  
>  _They were gone._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hello readers and fellow shippers :)  
> Danny is under a spell once again - is it just me or does he get hit by ghost magic almost every second episode?  
> Poor kid - oh well, Ember sings a certain song in this chapter and I think we all know it by heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_oyEAMR47E  
> Hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it :D
> 
> * * *

_Year 1986, Masters Castle, Wisconsin, USA_

Vlad had always liked having things his way. 

Ever since he had been a child, he had built up an appetite for controlling his environment and as he had come to inherited his parent’s money and name as a young man, nothing had seemed to be able to stop him and his taste for the perfect life. 

The time at the hospital had of course broken him for a time, taught him something about powerlessness and made him aware of the simple mortality that was the curse of the human kind. 

That is, until his powers had changed all that. Had made him hungry again. 

Vlad had never seen this as a bad trait, rather the opposite. An ambitious person with the right powers and intellect would always stand above the rest of the crowd and if you could gain something, it was yours to own, possess and enjoy. 

The first time he had stood face to face with true rejection and a desirable goal that couldn’t be gained with neither looks, power or money, had been Daniel Fenton. 

The brief longing for his mother before him would always pale compared to the passion the young half ghost always stirred in him and as a creature far beyond the years, he knew that this love he held for Daniel would never parish. 

Never wither. Never end. 

He loved Daniel with all his heart. There was no way around it. 

Said halfa smiled at him from the other side of the table, watched the older halfa with lidded eyes and a dreamy smile, as if the man was his entire world. Which he was, if you took a second to listen to the words coming out his mouth. 

It was almost too good to be true, but Vlad chose to believe it and returned the smile. 

Daniel hadn’t as much as uttered a single objection since they’d left his grandniece and her fiancé on that roof of Bucky’s Music Megastore. Hadn’t even asked to where they were going, or tried to run as Vlad had teleported them to his castle in Wisconsin. 

Vlad had feared that the spell would wear of eventually and bring the furious Daniel back, but so far nothing like that seemed to be happening anytime soon. 

Vlad hadn’t dared to look the gift horse in the mouth and send several duplicates to get his tiger, servants and belongings back in Amity, and bring everything to the castle before Daniel’s little friends could go looking for them there. 

If the other had noticed anything, he hadn’t cared to show and just continue to shower Vlad in attention. Daniel had clung to him, or the least held his hand at any given moment, caressed him lovingly and showed nothing but blind devotion towards him. 

Vlad had wanted this for as long he could remember and had gotten a taste of it during the last past weeks, but none of that could even get close to the total submission Daniel was showing him now. It was perfect. 

Vlad had told himself this over and over again, as they had settled down at his dinner table to have a perfect meal together – one that wouldn’t be disrupted by out standers, attacking ghosts, annoying phone calls, or Daniel’s swinging moods. 

They were alone and perfect. Daniel was perfect. 

Said person suddenly tried to crawl over the table, ignoring the plates and candlestick, almost purring, “I wanna sit in your lap, Vlad.” 

“Now, now,” Vlad chuckled and pressed Daniel back into his seat, tried to safe a candle stick or two, “I know you want to touch me, but please finish dinner with me first.” 

“But you’re over there,” Daniel whined with a hand on his chest and all but begging eyes, “and I’m over here. I wanna be over there.” 

Vlad ignored the strangeness of it all and took the others hand on the table instead. Relished in the fact that it wouldn’t be ripped away or try to hit him. Daniel hurried to braid fingers with him and sighed in deep content. 

All but heart flying around his head. 

Vlad couldn’t help but adore him with a light chuckle. “I should send Ember a fruit basket for this.” 

“Who’s Ember?” Daniel asked, clearly not caring for an answer and Vlad smiled smugly. 

“Another pleasant side-effect. Now that I won’t have to share you with anyone, you and I will finally be free to do as we please, my love. The last page to Sojourn’s journal is just around the corner and I promise you world domination will be easy with you by my side. After all, the people will need a caring ruler like you. It will give perfect balance to my stricter ruling methods.” 

“Ruling?” Daniel asked confused, like a worried child and grabbed Vlad’s other hand to braid his finger with it as well, “how can I possible rule? All I can think about is you. I don’t need people – all I want is you.” 

Vlad knew deep down this wasn’t reasonable behavior, but pushed it away. 

Daniel loved him, that was all that mattered – the rest could be sorted out later. Like Daniel trying to strip for him every five minutes and the overly possessive behavior he had showed towards Vlad when Maddie had tried to get a petting from her owner. 

Vlad had no idea Daniel could hiss like that. 

“I know,” soothed, unknowingly treating the other like a child, “but I like to run over some of my plan with you – if not ruling the world, then the wedding at least.” 

The other gasped in happiness and looked as cheery as a child Christmas eve. Vlad was barely able to keep him in his seat to reach the dessert and continued to ignore all the warning signs. 

He was halfway through a slow tour around the castle (Daniel kept pushing him up against walls and kiss him breathlessly) when Vlad received a call from Skulker and duplicated without Daniel’s knowledge. 

Vlad watched his duplicate and lover continue down the corridor and flew to his private study to take the call in secret. 

“Skulker.” 

_“Is it a bad time?”_ the hunter asked, knowing Vlad hated being called while being with his lover. 

Vlad was surprised to find that he had almost said “no”. He couldn’t explain it, but somehow being called by the hunter had felt like a needed escape. But from what? From…Daniel? 

_Don’t be a fool, you have wanted this for eons._

Vlad shook his head, to many unwanted emotions and thoughts trying to reach the surface. What was he running from exactly? He wanted this, wanted Daniel here, wanted his happy loving soulmate by his side – all to himself not the least. 

Daniel had just proven that he held no caring for anyone else than him – had literally thrown the role as the human kind’s hero behind him in favor of Vlad’s love. Had given up everything for him. 

_Him._

Still, Vlad couldn’t explain why he had felt like getting a break from Daniel just now. For the love of god, they had barely spent six hours together! Back in Amity they had been glued together for far longer than that without problem. 

Then why this behavior? Why this… 

_“Plasmius?”_

Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to sort out his mind and ended up pushing the unease down back into the dark part of his head, where he banished all traces of the things he didn’t want to face about himself. 

Allowed the taste of victory and self-interest to take its place instead and pull him back into safe self-control. 

“You know it is, Skulker – tell me what you have to say for yourself, I don’t have all evening.” 

The hunter cleared his throat, clearly knowing he would have to choose his next words wisely, _“I clearly underestimated the little huntress, she used my own sedate on me and left me unconscious outside my suit.”_

“I can imagine,” Vlad drawled unimpressed. 

To think that someone as incompetent as the little Miss. Thornwood had taken down his hunter all alone, either told something grave about the girl’s true nature, or a complete lack of judgment in Skulker’s case. 

He suspected the last and guessed he would have to give future jobs like these to the Fright Knight from now on. That goon had never failed him. Skulker on the other hand… 

_“I’ve called as soon as I’ve got the update on the situation. Fright Knight said you left with the Whelp…should I assist in any guarding of your current position?”_

Vlad snorted by that. He doubted that the huntresses had any idea or where to find him and even if they did, he doubted Daniel would follow them back willingly. Daniel wasn’t a prisoner, he wanted to be here by his own free will – 

_Snap out of it, Daniel. You’re under a spell!_

The flashback of his own exact words hit him almost hard enough for him to crush the phone in his hand and the old glimpse of Dan flashed before his eyes. He forced it back in almost panic and convinced himself this wasn’t like that. 

Danny had been magically manipulated by a monster back then. Turned into something he wasn’t and never would be, no matter what darkness the cursed ringmaster had claimed rested inside the heart of the young halfa. 

Daniel hadn’t been himself back then. That had been an evil spell. 

But this spell? Daniel had always loved him, Vlad knew this. Knew that Daniel had feelings for him and held the past weeks relationship between them as a solid proof. This wasn’t a real spell – it was just a wake-up call for the younger halfa. 

Yes – it had just made Daniel wake up to his true desires and left all his troubles and morals behind for him to be free, and realize he didn’t need anyone but Vlad. 

This wasn’t sinister. It was purely what Daniel wanted, but hadn’t been able to take before now. This spell had helped him, not damaged him. 

There was clearly a difference. 

A sudden sting and rush of returning ecto-energy made Vlad almost drop the phone and he looked around in panic. He had just been given a back a part of his energy. Someone had killed his duplicate. 

The one alone with Daniel. 

_“Plasmius!? What’s –”_

“Just break up with the singer – we don’t need her anymore and go hunt the last page!” Vlad sneered down into the phone and ended the call without a care. 

Daniel was in danger and he had no time to waste. 

Vlad phased through several walls at once and sought desperate after Phantom’s core signature to pinpoint his current location. Already fearing the worst. Had the huntresses found them somehow? Traced them back here? But how!? And this _fast!?_

Vlad doubled the speed when Daniel’s ice core appeared on his inner ghost radar and burst into the large ballroom with flaring hands, and the will to annihilate anything – anyone standing between Daniel and him. 

A blur of black hair and a bright smile jumped him almost instantly and Daniel refused to let go of him, as he smothered the older halfa broad chest with his strong hug and love. 

“There you are,” Daniel purred and tried to catch his lips to kiss him, but Vlad pushed the other behind him instead and scanned the room for the threat. 

“Where is the culprit?” Vlad sneered and sought all dark corners for the one who had killed his duplicate, “who did it? Who killed it?” 

“Oh, the duplicate?” Daniel asked casually and wrapped himself in Vlad’s cape to snuggled into him, “I did. I felt it wasn’t the real you, so I shot it down. No duplicate could ever replace you.” 

Vlad could only stare at him, not sure how to take this. Should he be flattered? 

Daniel continued to be all smiles and dreamy looks, “it’s so romantic that you thought someone had attacked me and came rushing to my rescue. Oh, this is just like Romeo and Juliet…except Romeo thought Juliet dead when he came running to her rescue and killed himself, which made her stab herself to death when she woke up and found him dead – that and I can understand everything we’re saying.” 

Vlad patted worriedly the other’s head and returned Daniel’s hug with some caution. He should be alarmed, he really should. 

_But I won’t._

“That’s…wonderful, dear. How about we get you to bed, you must be exhausted.”

   
 

Dani was currently in a state of utter panic. 

“WHAT THE FUCK! How can he have emptied an entire mansion like this!?” she yelled and stared in defeat at the empty place – it was spotless and bare, like Vlad had never lived here. 

How was that even possible!? 

Valerie couldn’t come up with an answer that would both explain their enemy’s will to succeed and still help them get something positive out of this hopeless situation. 

After Danny had been spirited away by Plasmius and Ember had escaped the building, Dani had given Valerie the short version of everything that had happened and how everything was connected back to Vlad. 

Valerie, of course, had been furious to learn the man had used her for personal gain and refused to take it slow and lie down with an icepack on her bruised back – to angry and focused on helping to save their friend from Vlad and the love spell. 

When they couldn’t find Vlad right away, both of them had rushed to start a search for the maker of the love spell, but Ember had as vapored into thin air. 

The only thing they knew was that she would show herself again before her concert started around midnight and both decided that they would beat her to a green pulp if necessary to get to the bottom of how to break the spell. 

But in the mean time they would have to find Danny and bring him to safety before Vlad misused him, or worse – disappeared with him forever. 

Dani’s worst fear was that Vlad would drag Danny with him onto the Ghost Zone where they couldn’t follow, but Valerie was pretty sure Vlad was too keen on staying on earth, now that he the mysterious page and promise of world domination – or however that puzzle fit together. 

None of them knew for sure. 

“This is all my fault,” Dani sighed, angry and frustrated, but mostly at herself. 

Valerie was over her almost instantly, “don’t tell yourself crap like that! If it’s anyone’s fault it’s mine for ignoring your warnings and all the red light – Vlad is the evil culprit here and let’s focus on getting him down.” 

Dani bed her doubts down, knew she was right. Valerie mostly was, that’s why she’d always been the one trusting focal point for her to hold onto. 

“Okay…then what do we do? Wait for Ember to show up?” 

Valerie's face told her everything she needed to know and the older woman sighed, “we can’t help Danny if we can’t stop the spell. Come one, lets track her down.” 

Dani suddenly widened her eyes and grabbed her fiancé with a large grin, “Val, you’re a genius! Tracking down!” 

“What?” Valerie asked confused and almost lost her footing, as Dani grabbed her backpack to rummage through it hastily, “Dani, what are you –?” 

“We can find him with this!” Dani insisted and showed her the invention, “it got his ghost signature and everything, it will lead us right to him!” 

Valerie accepted the invention and felt hope return to the situation. 

The Axion Booo-merang came to life with the blink of a little green light and Valerie threw it into the air. Instead of coming back to them like a normal Australian boomerang would, the metal 

invention started flipping around in the air and the took a course. The two huntresses wasted no time and jumped back onto their hoverboards. 

They had a ghost to track down.

   
 

 _Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

“So you’re saying we’re actually working on a murder case now?” 

The last standing staff of the police station all sighed in unison, as their colleagues on the laptop screen nodded severely. 

Janice could already see all the new paperwork stacking on her desk, while officer Miller was moving restless around with his feet, probably wishing he was at the casino with the rest of the officers and not stuck with a difficult (potential witness) in the other room. 

Said witness was now discussing his case with his lawyer and they all knew what that meant. 

Nichols was the only one still remaining indifferent. The case of the missing money at the casino didn’t concern him, as much as the big finally of the story he had back in his own interrogation room. 

He had only moved his ass to come back into the main area to get a report on the situation, because Danny had to use the restroom and Miller had informed him of the skype meeting with their head investigator at the scene. 

Miller sighed in annoyance and ruffled up his blond hair, “okay, so a blackjack game in the private part of the casino –” 

_“A **fixed** blackjack game – Mr. Anderson was never supposed to win. Dallas had paid the rest of the board and dealer to play on his hand,” their serge on the screen corrected, “it’s not clear on the footage we got from the waiter filming it all on her phone, but all except from Dallas has confessed.”_

Miller waved him off, “fine, five men enters the game, two of them has been paid to lose and the dealer gives the money shark the failing hand, while Dallas is giving the straight hand. A plan gone right until a new player – a unknowing guest enters the game and wins it all – correct?” 

Nichols scratched his jaw and made up the scene in his mind, “if it was a fixed game, then why would they allow a random guest to enter the game? I thought you said it was held in the private part of the casino.” 

_“That’s the thing,”_ one of the head investigator replied, as she joined the screen and was joined by one of the men from their technical office, _“the guests just went in there and took a seat before the bouncer could stop him. Probably thinking it was just another table open for playing. Anderson was going to make the bouncer take the guest away, but then suddenly changes his mind out of nowhere and even pull out a seat for the man himself. The sound on the footage is bad, we have some of the boys in the lab trying to improve it at the moment, but overall, the guest wins by laying down a perfect 21 and takes the chips before leaving.”_

“And then Dallas shot Anderson,” Nichols finished and the tree officers at the screen nodded. 

_“They tried to keep the body hidden from us to make us focus on getting their money back from the guest. The dealer finally cracked an hour ago and spilled the details in exchange for witness protection. Anderson claims that he didn’t kill Dallas on purpose, that he doesn’t remember anything between the guest arriving and leaving again. Chief wants all your arrested let free, we got all we need at the casino.”_

“And the lucky guest?” Janice asked slowly. 

_“We still haven’t found him or the big letherbag with the chips in it – worst case scenario, is that he has been taken by the money shark’s men, but we’re still searching for him. All we can say, is that he isn’t on the casino’s ground.”_

“Maybe his luck will bring him to us before them,” Miller said and they all nodded, “you got a good look at him?” 

All on the screen shook their heads, _“the angle of the phone is all wrong and as said, we can’t get his voice clean through. Some of the guys from the team might return to the station to take the footage to their desks, but right now we’ll remain here.”_

They ended the call and Miller’s night seemed to have brightened a bit by the promise of getting rid of his difficult witness. Nichols on the other hand wasn’t quit as ready to let his witness go and walked in to the restroom to find Danny. 

Danny looked up from his stand at the urinal and sipped his pants as Nichols went to take a piss in his own. 

“So…” Danny began slowly, “am I still a suspect?” 

Nichols shook his head, “unless you were in a room filled with gunslingers playing blackjack and in cahoots with a fool with more luck than wise, then I don’t think so.” 

Danny just shrugged and walked over to the sinks, “guns and blackjack has never really been my thing. I was just playing at the piano in the bar when you guys arrested me. I’m only guilty of using a fake ID. Scots honor.” 

“I know,” Nichols replied, having known this for a while now and led them back to the interrogation room, “but I think you still need to tell me just how you ended up behind that piano. How did that love spell work out in the end?” 

Danny took his seat and waited patiently for the other to do the same, “I don’t know much about ghost spells, other than having been under two different kinds, but unlike Freakshow’s influence, I remember everything while I was under that love spell. Every word, every action and every second of it.” 

“Did he misuse you?” Nichols asked quietly as he sat down, not actually wanting to know, but he had the feeling Danny needed to tell this to somebody. Someone who would listen without pity or judging him. 

Danny made a wry smile without much humor behind, “it would be classic Vlad, wouldn’t it?” 

“I suppose.” 

Danny leaned his head onto his palm and seemed to recall something, “I don’t know if Vlad ever really felt bad for the things he’d done to me in the past. If he ever really felt regret or had moments where his actions could seem shameful or wrong to himself, he never really showed or admitted it. I don’t know what’s going through his head half of the time and the times when I think I do, I’m mostly wrong.” 

Danny stared ahead, lost in speculations and his voice turned that of a wondering one, “I once believed we could be something normal – or at least as normal as immortal halfas can be. The few weeks we spend in that little house in Amity Park was nice. Something I sometimes look back on without shame. I don’t believe it to have all been an illusion. Just a vacuum.” 

“A vacuum?” Nichols asked confused. 

Danny nodded slowly, “a vacuum in that mess that is our lives. Like a dandelion breaking up from the asphalt, or a short ray of sun in a rainy month. Something small and fragile created on impossible terms. 

The possibility that me and Vlad would ever settle down and forget the world, has always been one to a trillion chances. None existing…but we both did anyway. What happened in Jazz’s house didn’t change anything or last. But it was there. It was real. At least to me.” 

Nichols didn’t know what to say, but Danny didn’t seem to need anything from him either. He just sighed and stared ahead with eyes to tired and to pale to belong to a young man in a modern world. 

“I think he regretted something while I was under that love spell. His actions seemed like it, but maybe that’s just another of his weird obsession traits. After the fall of the castle, Vlad never tried to force me to his side again. He wanted me to want it to – to choose him. Willingly. A love spell would never do, oh no, he wanted the real thing. He wanted it all.”

   
 

__

_Year 1986, Masters Castle, Wisconsin, USA_

_****_

_**“A love spell would never do, oh no, he wanted the real thing.**_

_****_

_**He wanted it all.”** _

   
 

Vlad was having a problem. 

Normally such thing wouldn’t stay an issue for long. As a man with power and money, if not the personality and ghostly influence to gain what he needed, most problems simply just vanished before they got out of control. 

Only one problem – or rather _person_ had proved to be a persistent obstacle. Daniel had never been one to be impressed by power, or tempted by money. 

The younger halfa had his own ghostly powers and when it came to Vlad as a person…well, Daniel had always been stubborn. 

But just like all problems of this world, all of them could be fixed in one way or another. Vlad had fought with the other for what felt like twice a lifetime, but it had paid off and the Gordian knot that was Daniel’s heart – or at least key to it – had been solved. 

The original problem had been to win Daniel’s hand back, a price Vlad would stop at nothing to gain and do anything to win. Vlad still believed that he had the right to Daniel, even after the other’s rejection at the revealing of his plans for world domination. 

His soulmate was just confused, just not seeing the bigger picture, just… 

Vlad massaged his temples, trying to keep up the inner defense speech. He wasn’t going to say it open or admit it, but Daniel had turned into a new problem. One far more complicated than before and twice as difficult to solve. 

It wasn’t that Daniel was the actually problem. The younger clearly adored him, had even begged him to get into bed with him and seemed set on be of assistance to all Vlad’s needs in the world. 

The older was by now convinced, that if he told Daniel to take down the government, Daniel would simply smile and ask; “should I take prisoners or not?” 

Vlad knew he should be happy. He had wanted this for far longer than was healthy and now he had it. Had Daniel. But then why was he standing here outside Daniel’s bedroom door with one hand on the nob and wished himself anywhere but here? 

Anger took over insecurity and he cursed lowly at his own foolishness. This wasn’t the act of a winner, this was pathetic – and Vlad Masters wasn’t scared of his own soulmate! 

He took a step through the door with the intention of checking up on Daniel, believing (hoping) him to be asleep. Instead he found the entire bedroom lighted up by scattered candle fire and scented with something smelling like incense. 

Vlad took in the scene with some unease creeping in through the cracks of his own confidence. All the walls and most of the surfaces had been decorated with what seemed to be paintings and frames of Vlad. 

He recognized most of them, knowing they didn’t belong in this part of the castle and wondered if Daniel had been sneaking around and brought them to his room without Vlad’s notice. 

Candles of all sizes and color lifted up the room with swaying flames due to the open balcony door and Vlad slowly took a step closer the bed, where the creator of this shrine was meditating with closed eyes. 

Daniel was resting in a lotus position, thumb and index finger connected and from his lips ran a low chanting Vlad soon discovered was his name nonetheless. 

Daniel seemed to be too invested in his own mediation to detect him and Vlad stepped closer with light steps to take a look at the things scattered at the bed in front of the meditator. 

Vlad lifted an eyebrow by the little collection on the bed. Several newspaper clippings rested on the silk sheet, all of them about Vlad and one as ancient, as him and Daniel posing for a photo in front of the old castle back in 1920. 

Vlad remembered that party and recalled what it had led to. 

He ran his eyes over the rest and found several new protos of himself, a used shirt he remembered wearing and some of his rubber bands. 

It was all a bit excessive, but not as excessive as the used piece of gum, his red bow tie and the lock of silver hair with the little matching paper note saying _“Vlad’s”._

He couldn’t stop himself from lifting a hand to his ponytail to check if any of the locks felt shorter than the rest and forced himself not to shudder, before clearing his throat. 

“As much as some part of me finds this display flattering, I’ll prefer if we could allow the servants to clean up this little shrine of yours, my dear.” 

Daniel opened his eyes immediately, but instead of scowling at him or crack some wit like Daniel always would in situations he couldn’t deliver a sensible answer to, the younger halfa simply lighted up in a bright smile and jumped out of the bed to reach him. 

“Vlad! I’ve missed you so much.” 

_It’s barely been twenty minutes!_ Vlad thought quietly and led his soulmate away from all the images of his person and out on the balcony to get some air. Maybe that would freshen Daniel up. 

Daniel followed along, tame as a puppy and fell back into that state where he would stare at Vlad with dreamy eyes and sigh every five second. Vlad leaned against the rail of the balcony and tried to sort his mind out. He wanted this, he really did. 

And yet… 

Daniel caught his stare and snapped out of his admiring in favor of beaming at Vlad, before snuggling into him. Vlad laid an arm around him per instinct, caught the scent of the other’s hair and closed his eyes for a second. 

Yes, he wanted this. 

“Daniel.” 

“Yes?” the younger replied instantly, eager to hear him out and be at service. 

Vlad forced himself to see this as charming, rather than any other possibility and placed a hand against the others cheek. Preparing himself for what he was about to say. 

“Daniel there’s something I have wanted to ask you for a long time, but never had the chance to,” Vlad began, already knowing Daniel would accept, rather than refuse, as he had feared these few weeks. 

Something about this certain knowledge saddened him and it confused him a bit. What was there to be sad about? He was going to ask Daniel the one question and gain what he had always wanted. 

He wanted this, he desired this with all his heart. 

But then why wasn’t he happy? 

“My love,” Vlad stated and went down on one knee, watched how Daniel continue to watch him with those loving eyes and gasp as he brought out the little satin box from his jacket. 

“Daniel, will you,” Vlad stated as he looking into those big blue eyes and suddenly realized that he didn’t knew this person staring back at him. 

His mouth dried out by this and the words stuck to his tongue. Would leave him. Wouldn’t be spoken out loud. 

Vlad lowered the little box, stared down at the balcony floor in anger, “…I can’t do this.” 

The other watched him with confusion, although loving confusion and Vlad turned away to make a grimace. What on earth was he during? 

“This isn’t different from the ringmaster’s spell,” he heard himself mutter and for the first time in many many years, Vlad was on the brink of crying. 

How could he have allowed this to go this far? Daniel was under a spell, a forged mindset, an emotion born out of ghostly ectoplasmic manipulation. Daniel didn’t love him like this. So utterly submissive and without the spirit to think as an individual. 

Vlad knew deep down that Daniel loved him. He had never heard him utter those exact words, but he knew deep down that his love for the younger male was requited. That something that had always been part of them had been allowed to blossom these past weeks. But this? 

This wasn’t Daniel. 

It was just another Dan. 

“We have to lift this spell,” Vlad finally stated resolute, grabbed Daniel’s arm and went for the door, “McLain will show up at her own concert tonight, if we teleport now, we can still get to her in time before her grand finally and turn you back normal.” 

“Normal how?” Daniel asked confused and followed along without a fight, something that only angered Vlad even further. 

An anger that desired the green ectoplasm of a certain siren ghost. 

“Just do as I say and if possible, focus on telling the real Daniel caged inside you that everything is going to be just fine,” Vlad replied annoyed and dragged the other down the corridor, muttering angry to himself, “I should never have fallen this low, allow myself to accept something as hollow as this. He’s not himself, even I should be able to tell – me! The only one who knows him truly!” 

“You’re beautiful when you’re wracked with guilt,” Daniel snickered to Vlad’s great annoyance and he pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“This is so wrong. I’m a fool.” 

“That doesn’t matter!” Danny hurried to reply, as he took both Vlad’s hands and admired him with that love-struck puppy face of his, “just so long as we have each other.” 

Vlad cringed, that did it for the man. 

“Snap out of it!” Vlad yelled and shook the other, while trying to forget this wasn’t the first time such a scene had been acted out between them, “you don’t hold those feeling for me right now! If any the real Danny would be angry – furious with me! I’ve just tricked you for a page, used your humans for the sake of my schemes and left them on a battered rooftop – we might as well have returned to be nemesis at this rate!” 

Daniel watched him with a somewhat bored expression, before he suddenly smirked and looked down, “then why are you still holding my hands?” 

Vlad ripped said hands to himself and tried to keep down his temper – if not the urge to smack the man before him. 

“Daniel, you have to stay here, you’re not fit to fight any ghost at the moment. Stay in the castle while I go back to Amity.” 

Danny suddenly seemed to have snapped out of something and stared in chock, “does this mean that we’re breaking up?” 

Vlad didn’t even know what to answer to that and simply turned into his alter ghost ego in order to prepare a teleport, “we’ll discuss that when I return and you’d time to regain yourself after the spell.” 

“So we’re not breaking up? In that case I’m coming with you,” Daniel concluded stubbornly. 

Vlad was asking himself whenever it would be risky to just sap Daniel with the Plasmius-maximus and lock him in a guestroom for his own safety – and Vlad’s peace at mind, when something suddenly crashed through the window and smacked him in the temple. 

Vlad caught it with some confusion and rubbed his sore face with a sneered, “oh what stupidity is this? Is that a _boomerang!?_ ” 

The explanation to this puzzle was delivered in the shape of two huntresses crashing through the same ruined window and firing at will with each ecto-blaster. 

Vlad was hit in the torso and slammed against the wall, leaving a huge dent in it, before sliding down to land on the floor. 

Dani threw a fist in the air, while Valerie blew the smoke of her blaster, both looking pretty proud of themselves, “that’s for tricking me into helping you and kidnapping Dani, you scum.” 

“And this is for taking advantage of my cousin,” Dani sneered and took aim at the still knocked out halfa. 

Only to be stopped by Danny jumping out in front of Vlad to protect him. 

Valerie was quick enough to lift Dani’s blaster before the shot could go off and all covered their head, as the blast made bits of the ceiling fell down on them. 

“Danny what the hell!?” Dani gasped and jumped of her board to get to him, “I could have hit you!” 

“Don’t you dare touch him!” Danny snapped and hurried to get out of her reach and down to check on Vlad, who was trying to get back on his feet, “are you okay, love?” 

Both Dani and Valerie couldn’t help from shudder at the submissive tone and Vlad pushed him behind him without a word, before teleporting them both. 

“Not again!” Dani snapped and picked up the booo-merang to throw out the window, when a blast hit her right in the back. 

“Dani!” Valerie gasped and hurried to cover her fiancé, as Plasmius turned visible with a dark grin. 

Danny nowhere to be found. 

“Clever machine,” Vlad drawled sarcastic and made a duplicate pick up the booo-merang before either of the huntresses could get to it, “hmm, I see, a tracking device locked onto Phantom’s signature. Well not anymore.” 

The duplicate shared his grin, as it pulverized the booo-merang in its hand and joined four other Plasmius to circle the two ghost hunters, all talking in unison, “you really believe you could simply track him here, win a fair fight and take away my soulmate?” 

“Danny isn’t your anything and you leave him alone, you creep! What have you done with him!?” Dani growled angrily and took a new aim at the nearest Plasmius. 

Valerie quickly followed her, taking position back to back with her. 

The Vlads’ scoffed drily with dark leers, “I don't think so, girl. You don't dare take up a fight with the oldest halfa to exist. And he's more than eager to take you two out by my side. Daniel has chosen me. You’re beaten. This is over.” 

“As if!” Valerie yelled and hit her wrist. 

Three duplicates were shattered instantly, as the two hoverboards floating passively behind came to life by her command and fired them in the back. Vlad didn’t take it as a loss and simply regained their power, ready to fire at them with his last two duplicates. 

Dani starting firing like there was no tomorrow with a battle cry, making the duplicates scatter and reform in between the rain of blasts. 

Meanwhile, Valerie tried to maintain the back to back position with her and keep them together, while trying to find the real Plasmius. If she could hit him with a shocker-blast, the duplicates would return to him and allow them to fire at one target without distractions. 

Their only hope was to take him out fast if they wanted to leave intact with Danny 

Speaking of which – where the hell had Vlad left him!?

   
 

Danny opened his eyes with a groan. 

The taste of a mix of burned gums, human blood and sweet ectoplasm wasn’t a cocktail he favored much and he sat up to rub the sore spot on his neck. 

Both his returning memory and unconscious mind told him that Vlad had sapped him with the Plasmius-maximus – something he should be angry about, giving he had warned the halfa never to use it on him again, or death would be in his wake. 

But the conscious mind that was still under the love-spell reminded him, that ‘Vlad’ was the only keyword in this thought that meant anything and followed it up with the impulse to find said man. 

“Vlad,” Danny whispered and fell back into a short second of daydreams, before the rest of his impulses told him to go search for him and turn those daydreams into reality, “I’m coming for you!” 

Without his powers, he simply began to run around and tried the doors one by on. 

When none of them turned out to contain the only object in his universe who mattered, he tried to pick up the other’s signature, found that he couldn’t with his locked powers, shrugged and continued the search as a hopeless human being. 

The sudden shaking of the castle made him listen and he laid flat down to listen to the carpet. Distant sound of yells and destruction seemed like a good lead and Danny smiled optimistic, as he ran towards the stairs to follow the commotion. 

He didn’t stop to question why three ghost vultures was racing right past him in the opposite direction, with horror written all over their faces and hurried to get to the door that had just been blasted off its hinges. 

A duplicate was blasted in with the burned door and dissolved into energy, followed by Dani’s taunting voice, “ha! guess that’ll teach you to pick on a defenseless girl!” 

“There’s no such thing,” corrected Valerie and fired a shot as Danny peered inside, “come on, let’s find Danny and get out of here!” 

A pink blast punched her right of the board and Danny brightened up, as Vlad came into view with a jeering smirk, “sorry, not on my watch.” 

Valerie looked up from the wall she had hit to find a bookcase flying her way and activated her hoverboard to fly in to cover her, before the bookcase hit her like a brick wall. 

Vlad grinned and turned without any effort to smack Dani’s ecto-staff out of her hand, before she could slam in against his temple. 

She cried out and tried toppling him with a low roundhouse kick, but he just turned intangible and dodged for the fun of it, as she kept fighting to get him with all her karate skills and suit equipment. 

“Feeling super in our souped-up suit, are we?” he asked calmly, as he tilted his head to dodge a missile and send a fist down into her hoverboard, smashing it into a thousand pieces. 

“Actually, yeah!” Valerie sneered behind him and opened her thermos. 

Vlad barely avoided the blue beam and flew at her with a new duplicate to take it from her. Valerie wasn’t halfa strong, but skilled enough to avoid getting into near contact and continued to jump and somersault out of their reach, while trying to catch him with the beam. 

Dani cut one of the Plasmius of, by placing herself in-between and started shooting at him, leaving them with each Plasmius to fight. 

The Plasmius chasing Valerie scoffed with a grin, as he grabbed the hand with the thermos, “not bad, but do you really think you can trap me in that ridicules soup thermos, woman?” 

Valerie cracked a grin and opened the extra thermos behind her back, “I think I just did.” 

Plasmius widened his red eyes, but was sucked into the thermos without mercy. 

Dani cheered, but then found that her Plasmius was still intact and barely got to utter a “oh c’me on!” before he grabbed and threw her to the other end of the room – hitting Valerie and making both huntresses crash into the overthrown coffee table, to end in a heap. 

“Oh, it has been fun, but I have other things to do and to be frank,” Vlad said smugly and ignited his hands with energy, “I’m sure Daniel will forgive me in some fifty years or so. I have time.” 

Valerie and Dani threw up their hands in reflex, as Vlad lifted his palm at them. 

Danny, who had been watching without recognizing any of the alarms going off in his head like the 4th of July, decided that he couldn’t stand being separated from the man he loved anymore and ran in to hugging him from behind. 

“Vlad!” 

Said man stiffened and forgot all about blasting the two humans to kingdom come, as he turned around to get out of Danny’s arms. 

“Oh, _homemade Twinkies_ – how did you get out of the room? I took away your powers and locked the door for god’s sake!” 

Danny just shrugged without a care. 

Four stories from them, the Dairy King was unlocking various doors, trying to find the new hideout for the castles cheese, since Vlad had removed it from the third kitchen to prevent the ghost from stealing all his diary products. 

The ghostly royalty would normally just phase through the door, but the last couple of rooms in the castle he hadn’t checked had been ghost-proofed. That’s why he had been forced to steal a master-key. 

Until now, his search for the new cheese lair had led to nothing. 

All he found was a white ghost tiger, five libraries, a shrine dedicated to the halfa living in his castle, three ghost vultures screaming up about a fight below them and an unknown halfa taking a nap on the carpet. 

As the ghost had went on, he hadn’t cared about locking any of the doors again. 

“Must be heavenly intervention,” Danny concluded and leaned against him with a seductive look, “cause I wanna scream your name to the heavens.” 

The two huntresses pulled him out of Vlad’s hand and out of reach with angry scowls. 

Dani made a gagging sound, “first – ew and second – one step closer, Plasmius and you’re gonna regret it, you monster!” 

Valerie nodded with a stern look, “how can you live with yourself? Taking advantage of Danny when he’s under a spell? It counts as rape!” 

Dani sneered, “not that something like that would be a new concept in your case.” 

“For heaven’s sake!” Vlad exploded in frustration, “I haven’t taken advantage of him – look at him! He’s not himself, he’s not really Daniel!” 

Both huntresses blinked in surprise, while Danny stayed unmoved, just watching the man with that dreamy look, “oh, you’re such a tease, Vlad. I know you want me.” 

Vlad just facepalmed and pitched the bridge of his nose, “what I want is to strangle Miss. McLain till she lifts this damned curse and then squeeze her thin neck till her eyes pop out of their sockets.” 

“Wow, double ew,” Dani replied, “but yeah, that’s probably what we all want – right?” 

Valerie sighed annoyed, before nodding to, “we want Danny cured, yes – but how can we trust you to be in on this? Don’t get me wrong, but you want Danny to love you and now he’s pretty much your willing slave – the second we lift the spell he’ll be back to hating you for betraying him.” 

Vlad send her a dry look, “allow me to clarify then – if little Miss. Thronwood here became angry at you and then got herself cursed to love you blindly, with no personality at all or any soul remaining, an empty shell no better than an inflatable doll with a voice – what would you do?” 

Valerie didn’t even have to think twice, “I would lift the curse, endure her anger and make it up to her…well in that case, I see your point – but there’s just one think that makes the difference in my case. I actually love Dani.” 

Dani hurried to get in-between them, as Vlad looked two seconds away from jumping Val and said woman ready to take a fist fight, “stop it! I didn’t wanna be the one taking his side in this, but none of this is important right now – Danny is. We need to focus on the spell.” 

“Yes, and speaking of spell,” Vlad said and made a duplicate grab each of them, before teleporting all of them at once and dumping all except Danny on the concrete behind a dumpster, “Ember McLain is an hour away from beginning her concert and with that her countdown to world domination.” 

“You’re so pretty when you’re an asshole to others,” Danny whispered and took his hand with a loving smile. 

They all sighed in annoyance, thinking this was getting old and ignored him all together, as they made a circle to form a plan. 

“I say we corner her in her preparation room to minimize people getting involved and try take her out, before bringing her to a secure place, where we can make her lift the spell,” Valerie suggested. 

“Oh really? You think she’s going to follow along willingly without trouble and then do as we say after a nice ‘please’? Can your silly thermoses even cage a ghost like this?” Vlad replied drily, receiving a murdering look from Dani. 

“Don’t talk to my fiancé like that, you backstabbing lonely cat man.” 

“Maddie is a tiger! And a gift from Daniel, you little –” 

“Could we focus!?” Valerie interrupted and made both parts snort angrily before returning to listen. 

“Alright, my plan has some flaws, so what’s your contribution to this plan?” Valerie asked a bit toxic and Vlad scoffed derogatory. 

“Well, as I see it, Miss McLain is a ghost and therefor in no need for any preparation and room to do so in – meaning she will be teleporting unto stage or preparing with her band behind the scene where there will be too many humans interfering should she be attacked.” 

“And your solution is…?” Dani asked without hiding her annoyance and Vlad rolled his red eyes – none of them could know, as they were eyes of a massive color, but he knew and that was all that mattered to him. 

“We attack her one stage.” 

“What!?” Dani squealed and Valerie joined her in outrage. 

“But there will hundreds of people watching us and she will be at her strongest with an entire concert to fuel her – if not global fans chanting her name and feeding her energy!? Are you out of your mind?” 

“It’s the only chance we got,” Vlad explained calmly, “she wouldn’t dare to run or teleport away from the stage that feeds her with power – she has worked too hard to get to this, to risk it all because she’s being attacked. The humans will see it all as just another scene show and the faster we take her down, the lower is the risk that any of your precious humans will be in danger. I’ll plant an invisible duplicate by all the cameras and have them cut the vires right before the show starts to secure she’ll only get power from the people actually assembled at the concert. If no one else than the people at the concerts can see her, they will be the only one to chant her name and give her power.” 

“But how do we get her to lift Danny’s spell?” Dani asked and send her granduncle clinging to Vlad a worried look. 

“Your thermos will have to do,” Vlad sighed and pushed Daniel of him for the fifth time, “I have a lab at my castle in Wisconsin. We can cage her there till she undoes _this._ ” 

_‘This’_ tried to kiss Vlad and he pressed Danny down again to held him out in an arm’s length. 

“Also, we’ll need someone to watch Daniel, he’s in no condition to take care of himself as it is,” Vlad sighed and received a lifted eyebrow from Valerie. 

“Can’t you just form a duplicate to keep him out of danger?” 

“Last time I did that, he killed it without a care.” 

Both females held up their hands to show they understood the message and Dani tried getting Danny’s attention, “hey, Danny, how about we find an ice-cream stand while they fight the bitch who cursed you?” 

“No!” Danny scowled as both Dani and Vlad tried to get him separated from the man, “I won’t do it!” 

“Daniel, for the love of god!” 

“I won’t leave you, Vlad.” 

“That’s it!” Vlad snapped and pulled out his phone. 

Both females stared in confusion, as Vlad turned around to utter a short order into the brick phone, while Danny hugged him like a clingy koala cub. The man ended the call, tapped his foot impatient and stare ahead with a scowl. 

Dani was going to ask what that was all about, when a sudden whistling sound passed them and Danny collapsed on the ground. A little green dart stood like a bizarre flower from his neck and a quiet snoring filled the shocked silence. 

The two huntresses just stared with wide eyes, as Vlad picked Danny up and pressed the phone back to his ear. 

“Thank you, Skulker, oh and did you break up with miss. McLain as I ordered? Good, good, then return to my lab and wait there – I’ll call you if I need you.” 

He had barely ended the call before Dani slapped him across the cheek. 

“That’s for sedating my cousin and kicking me down a staircase,” Dani scowled before he could ask her what that was for, “when this is over, that third-person-speaking lunatic robot will be in second place on my hunting list right below your name!” 

“I see,” Vlad replied without much care, as the slap hadn’t actually hurt him or as much as turned his head and he handed the unconscious Danny to a duplicate, who then turned invisible and disappeared, “he will be ready with Daniel in case Miss. McLain lift the curse with the simple powers of persuasion.” 

They all doubted it in each quiet mind, but planned after it, as they made up a quick plan for position and fighting strategy that would make them all work as an entity.

   
 

Vlad looked through his duplicates eyes for the fifth time that minute. 

Daniel was still fast asleep in the seat next to the human looking duplicate in the private concert booth and out of the danger, that could escalate on the ground up to the scene. Hopefully he would stay like that till they caught the singer and was ready to lift the spell. 

There was less than three minutes till the official concert would start and the warmup band was getting to their finish, opening the stage for the actual band people had come to see. 

Vlad couldn’t help but look down at these humans and shake his head. What had music come to? He guessed he would never get this era and reminded himself that he still had tickets to the grand opera in Paris next week. 

Hopefully Daniel would take his deal and follow him freely. It had taken some time to come up with the solution, but Vlad was confident Daniel would see past his little betrayal and understand why it would better for him to leave this place with the halfa. 

Vlad wasn’t going to leave him no choice whatsoever. 

The man hated to do this, but he would have no choice, as soon as the spell was lifted. Daniel might have turned a bit… _unpredictable_ , these past years, but Vlad expected the younger would take most of his anger out on the singer, who had cursed him in the first place and not Vlad. 

Hopefully most of his frustration would be out by then and Vlad could pick up what was left and avoid an actually fight. 

Not that he didn’t trust he could still win against Daniel – well, it never hurt to have the Fright Knight for backup should it get out of hand – but he’ll rather avoid anything like that. 

He looked up as the band took their au revoir with the audience and got off the stage. A robotic pep talk started over the audio and began presenting the star of the night’s concert, making the audience cheer her name in roaring unison. 

Vlad reconnected to all of his duplicates, making sure they were all ready to cut the vires to the cameras and prevent the live concert from going global. 

He checked up on the two last duplicates standing behind each of the huntresses and made sure both of them was still keeping the females invisible above the stage. 

It was time. 

The concert hall exploded in wild yelling and cheering, as smoke filled the scene and revealed their teen rock star. Ember lifted her hands in the air and took in their chanting. 

_“Hello Amity Park! Tell me who you love!!”_ She yelled into the microphone and had the hall go nuts. 

Her demand was immediately followed with loud screaming and a single fan confessed her love for her near the stage, “I love you, Ember!” 

_“That’s because I fill a void in your empty life,”_ Ember grinned bluntly into the mic and began singing as her band started playing.

   
 

_“Yeah!_  
_Ohhhh!”_

 

_“It was, it was September_  
_Winds blow, the dead leaves fall_  
_To you, I did surrender_  
_Two weeks, you didn't call_  
_Your life goes on without me_  
_My life, a losing game_  
_But you should, you should not doubt me_  
_You will remember my name!”_

   
 

The chanting grew louder and Ember closed her eyes with a triumphing smile to take it all in, making her blue flame reach a new height. 

Her success was falling a bit to the ground, as the singer seemed to sense something wasn’t right and realized her backstage was running around in panic. The camera men around the wall of the concert and in front of her, all seemed to be in some stage of anger and yelling on top of each other. 

Waving cut vires at one another and demanding answers from their confused assistance and technicians trying to find the culprit with the scissors. 

Despite this, she continued to sing and sucked out as much power as she could from the audience in front of her.

   
 

_“Oh, Ember, you will remember_  
_Ember, one thing remains_  
_Oh, Ember, so warm and tender_  
_You will remember my name!”_

 

_“Your heart, your heart has mended –“_

   
 

The singer’s voice changed to that of a scream, as the leader of the red huntresses came crushing in from the right and hit her right in the side with a kick and went flying. 

Dani followed shortly with a jetpack and three paralyzing bombs to take out the band, while Ember smacked hard into the side of the scene and crashed through one of her giant screens. 

“That’s for ruining Danny Phantom,” Valerie yelled after her, “and speaking of Phantom – undo the spell!” 

Ember growled as she got out from the inside of the ruined screen and tried to get hold of her messed up hair and ruined eyeliner. Both huntresses were ready for her on their hoverboard and jetpack, as she came flying down at them, while surfing on her guitar and took the opposite side of the scene. 

“Get this straight, dipstick!” Ember scowled and adjusted the button on her guitar to the symbol of a fist, “I don’t do duets and especially not with chicks!” 

“Valerie!” Dani yelled, as she rushed to grab and get her out of the of the wave’s way. 

Valerie watched her board getting blasted to kingdom come behind her and both landed somewhere at the other end of the concert hall, as the explosion pushed them. Ember shielded her face with her guitar and hurried to get back to her mic to finish her song. 

She had barely opened her mouth before said mic was snatched and she scowled, as Vlad waked a finger at her, “ah, ah, ah. Undo the spell, then we can talk.” 

“Talk to this, grandpar!” she sneered and swung her guitar at him. 

Vlad flipped the mic in his hand to use it as a sword and held a hand behind his back, as he dueled her with a grin. Ember’s anger only rose as he yawned arrogantly and moved calmly around her, while she fought with all her might. 

Dani and Valerie returned a second after and both pulled out their thermoses. 

Both of them had taken aim and was ready to suck Ember into the shinning containers, when the singer suddenly turned towards them in a twist and fired a powerful ecto-blast with her hands instead of guitar. 

Neither of the had seen that coming and was thrown back by the blast. Vlad was ready to hit her in back of the head, but she simply swung the guitar to cover her back and summoned a tornado of sound. 

The tornado caged the two huntresses and the singer grinned at him with an open fist threatening to close the tornado around them and tear them to shreds. 

“Fuck of or I kill them,” she smirked. 

Vlad simply lifted an eyebrow, not really moved. 

“And what makes you think they mean anything to me? They’re _humans_.” 

“Traitor!” Dani yelled and was ignored. 

“Maybe not, maybe they do,” Ember replied and then snickered, “but what about a half-human then?” 

Vlad gasped as Danny crawled unto the scene and tried get to him. Vlad hadn’t even felt his duplicate getting killed – for the second time – and cursed himself for his foolishness. Of course, the 

Skulker’s serum was meant for humans, not a full grown halfa with a metabolism like a dinosaur – in what world would such a sedate have kept Daniel sleeping till this was over? 

“Don’t you dare!” Vlad growled, as she moved towards Danny and hurried to stand in between them. 

Ember just snorted, “I don’t get it, if you really like that hunk so much, then why do you want me to undo my spell?” 

“Because it’s not real,” Vlad scowled and narrowed his red eyes, as she just laughed at him. 

“Who decides what’s real? Old folk?” she asked mockingly and strummed her guitar, “well not anymore. Not in my world at least – oh, and when I say my world, I mean MY World!” 

“Oh forget about world domination – you can have it,” Vlad replied drily and pointed to Daniel, “just undo this and I won’t get in your way. Understood?” 

“Can’t do,” she replied with a shrug, “the only way to break a love spell, is to break his heart – ha!” 

Vlad sighed in painful annoyance, “oh for the love of,” and pulled her in for a kiss. 

All, including the entire concert hall, lost their jaws and Danny gasped in shock. 

“Vlad?” he said in confusion and tried to get his thought and raging emotions straight, “how could you? How…?” 

He shook his head to get it under control and suddenly changed into Phantom on stage to everyone’s surprise, “hey! Get away from him!” 

Ignoring the gasping audience pointing fingers and gawking at him, Danny flied straight at the singer and Vlad was wisely enough to move away just in time, to not getting included in the sucker punch Danny was serving. 

Ember screamed, as she was punched back into the crowd and Danny made ready to fly after her, but was stopped by Vlad. 

“Daniel, are you alright?” he asked worriedly and Danny slapped his hands away without a care. 

“No,” he sneered coldly and send the man an icy glance, that made the older halfa step back, “I feel like my heart’s been ripped out!” 

Both halfas and huntresses looked up as a group of journalists tried to get up on stage and the police began surrounding the scene, while the teens of Amity Park parted into two groups. 

One calling out to Danny as their hero and the other throwing trash at him with words as _“freak!”_ , _“halfghost!”_ and _“I knew it!”_. 

Ember, who had begun to wake up from her short blackout on the floor amongst the audience, looked around with beginning fear and tried to get the teens around her to listen to her, “no! Wait – you’re supposed to pay attention to me! _Me!_ ” 

The teens around her seemed confused and most of them didn’t even knew why there where at the concert to begin with. 

Realizing that her ghostly influence on the teens of Amity Park had been disrupted, Ember started to go into panic and could only feel as her hair and powers returned to a weak state. 

“NO! SAY MY NAME! SAY MY NAME!!” she screamed like a child denied candy at the store. 

Danny narrowed his eyes and his hands flared up with raw power, as he heard her screaming on the floor. 

He pushed past Vlad with murder in his eyes, “everything hurts, everything is soo wrong – and now I know who I can take it out on.” 

Vlad watched as his soulmate jumped into the air and shot after the running ghost singer. Unlike the two huntresses calling after him with worried faces behind their masks, Vlad knew better than to be worried for Daniel by now. 

He would wait for him to return to him on his own this time.


	49. The day Danny Phantom did the unthinkable. He gave up.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny once had a mentor  
>  _Vlad warned and leaned forward with his drink in hand and a serious expression, “you are fifteen years old now. Even though you continue to act and behave like a child, you have reached the border of childhood, believe it or not, and you should be able to handle a drink like any other decent adolescent. It’s time you learn to show some responsibility.”_  
>  _“It’s not like that,” Danny cut in to defend himself._  
>  _“BUT,” Vlad continued, completely ignoring Danny’s input and made the boy cower in his seat with his sudden growl, “I will not tolerate or continued to watch you stray from home only for the sake of straying. Your absence hasn’t gone unnoticed, neither by Jasmine or Madeline. It’s too late to change the past, Daniel, but it’s time you take responsibility of your future and take care of the family you have left.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Untill Vlad came to want more than an apprentice  
>  _Those green eyes only widened as Vlad's hand started its slowly downward. Vlad ignored the new wave of desperation wrenches and concentrated on the whimpering, smothered sound of his name and shushed the shaking form against him._  
>  _“Don’t fight it,” he whispered into the boy’s ear and started to rub slow calming circles over the troubled heart, “you may find me selfish, but this is all for your pleasure, Daniel.”_  
>  _The smaller body started to shake and nails bite into the edge of the chapel's altar, as Daniel had grabbed it for support._
> 
> Danny make his last words to the living Kember of the past  
>  _"Try and leave without him noticing and stay around people," Danny said into the phone, "and don't go home. I'll be there before you know it."_  
>  _ **"Alright, Danny. I see you there,"** she retorted happily and ended the call._
> 
> And that had seemed the end of her  
>  _A crisp skeleton of a curled-up figure on the ruins of a bed with no sheets left to cover her naked body._  
>  _His breath left him by the cruel sight and he moved closer in awe. She seemed so small to him without the long hair, natural bodyfat and theatrical dresses. Only the bones and a blackened surface of burnet flesh remained and he was afraid to touch her. Afraid that she would crumble under his hands and turn to dust by the slights wind._  
>  _Flakes vibrated from the scraps of the guitar she had curled around and it was then he closed his eyes and knew he had failed her. She hadn’t been asleep during the fire, she had been awake, scared and possible even known she was a lost cause. Having pulled the guitar to her like a last distraction from the flames and screamed into its sound-hole as the flames had ate up her loose hair._  
>  _She had suffered. She had suffered because of him._  
>  _He had failed the girl on the bed._  
>  _ **It’s gonna be my thing. My special sound.**_
> 
> But now she has returned, but not as Kemberly  
>  _He found both Daniel and Ember on the roof. Apparently, Daniel had fallen to the need of helping the ghost instead of attacking._  
>  _“ – I know it’s hard, but you have to remember! You name was Kemberly McLain, you sang at Vice End as a Jazz singer in the 1920’s. It’s me! Danny!”_  
>  _“Like I care,” Ember scoffed with a nasty grin and swung her guitar at him, “who cares about human lives anyway? You and jazz music can stick it and get out of my hair!”_  
>  _Daniel dodged the guitar and grabber her hands to wrestle her down, clearly at the advantage with his super strength, while she fought to get her hands free in order to strum again._  
>  _“Get of me!”_  
>  _“You wanted to be something bigger than a jazz singer and become the star of New York – you had dreams and friends. I was your friend!”_
> 
> Danny woke from the spell - but revealed his secret in the doing  
>  _“Oh forget about world domination – you can have it,” Vlad replied drily and pointed to Daniel, “just undo this and I won’t get in your way. Understood?”_  
>  _“Can’t do,” Ember replied with a shrug, “the only way to break a love spell, is to break his heart – ha!”_  
>  _Vlad sighed in painful annoyance, “oh for the love of,” and pulled her in for a kiss._  
>  _All, including the entire concert hall, lost their jaws and Danny gasped in shock._  
>  _“Vlad?” he said in confusion and tried to get his thought and raging emotions straight, “how could you? How…?”_  
>  _He shook his head to get it under control and suddenly changed into Phantom on stage to everyone’s surprise, “hey! Get away from him!”_
> 
> * * *
> 
> hey readers :D  
> yet another tragic chapter - when will the angst ever end?  
> some songs will be sung in this chaper and i managed to find one that sounded lie two women singing  
> Danny wil sing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwZasIDcByo  
> Dani and Valerie will sing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExYj0YhLXoQ  
> Hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
> 
> * * *

_Year 1986, downtown Amity, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_  


Hunting Ember McLain down hadn’t been that hard, Danny hardly had to think strategic or stay cautious as he chased her. 

In other words – he didn’t exactly think as he chased her through the city. Maybe because he didn’t think about his actions, it all seemed so much more wrong afterwards.  


But at the moment, Danny was too busy shooting her down from the sky, instead of pondering and blasted her through four buildings without a care. 

He was in that simple state where he had no other wish than to take out his problems at someone else and that someone else had just randomly turned out to be her.  


“Get of me, dipstick!” Ember screamed and then uttered a sound between something wet bursting and something hard crunching, as Danny kicked her down into the pavement.  


He didn’t stop there and simply blasted her further down the street, leaving a long line of green ectoplasm on the road after her battered body. Four duplicates circled her before she could get away and she fought him the best she could, which just wasn’t enough. 

In a desperate attempt to protect herself, she tried swinging her guitar at him, to which he simply grabbed it before it could hit his head and tighten the grip.  


She widened her eyes, as the instrument broke in half and stubbled backwards in disbelieve with the broken guitar at her feet. Danny didn’t pay her tears no mind, as he began following her backwards retreat with a merciless expression.  


Seeing that she was out of options, Ember grabbed the puny remains of her instrument and decided that this was it, as she ran for her life. Danny could take up the hunt, but instead remained standing and inhaled. 

The ghostly wail hit the street like a tsunami wave and blew cars, streetlights and fire hydrates away like leaves. The buildings shook violently and Ember looked up in shock, as the office building in front of her came tumbling down on her.  


Danny ended the wail and ran forward to get through the dust and jumped to hammered his flaring hand down into the hill of bricks. The impact made half of the bricks pulverized into nothing and the other half was blast to Kingdome come by the ectos-stricke. 

Danny bared his fangs as he started digging with his bare hands and ignored the green stains that grew in sizes the further down he got.  


When a turf of blue hair appeared, he didn’t hesitate to pull it upwards and the wounded singer gasped in pain as she was pulled out of the brick pile.  


“No please!” she begged, but was slammed down against the dusty pavement nevertheless.  


She turned her head in the last second before Danny’s boot would have crushed it like a melon and she hurried to roll to the side to avoid his fist.  


Getting tired of her squirming, Danny stumped bit boot down on her hair with a growl to keep her in place and pulled back his hand to form a scythe of ice. 

She closed her eyes in fear, as he prepared to cut her head clean of and curled in on herself in a fetus position with her broken guitar hugged close to her chest. Waiting for the blow with scrunched eyes and clenched teeth.  


It was then something in Danny stopped.  


To this date, he still didn’t know what he had lost on that day exactly. Maybe it was the part of him that still believed himself to be a somewhat hero, or just a person of moral. 

Maybe it was that small part of him that still could be called innocent – the part of him that still allowed him to commit honest mistakes, in order to learn from them like everyone else, instead of telling himself it just proved his inedible doom. 

The fragile part of his soul that allowed him to sleep at night when the haunting nightmares of what he had done as Dan returned, or his mind reminded him of the ghosts he had sent to the Unworld despite good intentions. 

Danny still didn’t know what he had lost that day, but he knew one thing.  


Kemberly McLain might not remember him, but even as a vicious ghost and practically a whole other person… she still didn’t deserve this. He had no right to be her judge, jury or executer.  


He was supposed to be her friend.  


The scythe melted in his hand and made cold drops run down his arm. By the sound of the falling water, Ember curled tighter in on herself, but Danny knew now what he had been seconds from doing and rose from the concrete. 

Feeling ashamed and disgusted with himself. But most of all disappointed.  


“I see you there.”  


Ember cracked a green eye open, stared up at him in somewhat confusion, “…w-what?”  


Danny sighed tiredly and took in the sight of the destruction he had caused to the town he had promised to protect. He rubbed his face to get some of the dust of and finally looked at her. 

Saw the damage he had caused her and took in the sight of this thing who had once been something special to him.  


“’I see you there’,” he repeated, old memories and echoes of nightmares coming back to him, “that was the last thing you said to me before you died. You…”  


Seeing that she still didn’t remember and continued to stare at him like he was an idiot, he allowed the last worlds to slip his tongue. 

Accepted that nothing he could say or do would ever make her understand the weight of her death he had carried for years.  


“Just forget it.”  


He rose from the dusty concrete without a word and simply started walking away. Ember, slowly healing and out of the danger of total banishing, sat up with some trouble and tried to understand what had just happened. 

She sat up slowly as she came to understand he was leaving her and looked after him. Somewhat offended.  


“Hey! What’s your damage, baby pop!?” she called after him, her wounded pride and rebellious side waking up again now that she was out of his reach, “don’t walk away from me like that! It’s your territory, right? Fight for it, ya dickweed! Get back here! No one walks away from Ember McLain!”  


Danny ignored her and continued to walk. He didn’t stop for no one or nothing, just walked and followed his own feet to whatever destination they had in store for him, in favor of letting his mind let loose. 

The reflection of the past weeks occurrences played before his eyes like a terrible sitcom and the consequences of what he had done and failed to do, was added to the soup of tiredness and misery that was his head at the moment. 

Had Penelope Spectra still been alive, she would probably had jumped him like a vampire in a hunger frenzy and honestly…he wouldn’t have cared the least. That was the thing, he supposed.  


He didn’t really care. Couldn’t find it in him to care for anything.  


Or anyone.  


Nothing changed as he reached the little hill outside of town. He looked around for a second and recognized it as the place, where he had jumped back into the human world through Wolf’s portal and returned to the human civilization after years of exile in the Far Frozen. 

He sank heavily by the thought of the simple ghost and came to miss his old fury friend.  


A part of him hoped the ghost would slash a hole in the air right this moment to sweep him back into the zone for an adventure or ghostly quest. 

Take him to a place that would justify him leaving again for a hundred years without feeling like a coward for it and make him forget what he had done here.  


But of course, no such thing happened and Danny would be a fool to believe something like running was still a solution to his troubles. 

If old age had told him anything, it was that time didn’t heal anything and there was no problem in the world that couldn’t be solved, if you just let go of your moral or pride. He knew running wouldn’t do him any good, it never had. 

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t help it. Couldn’t help running and still seek for something, something that would finally tie him to something or someone for good.  


As the wind rushed through his white hair, Danny closed his eyes and tried washing out the biting edges of that hole inside of him, that had been there since his mother’s death. 

The hole that had only grown after the loss of his sister and friends, and would probably expand when he lost Dani and Valerie. He had long since stopped seeing immortality as a gift if he ever had. 

Living a long time meant seeing people dying around you and witness humanity redo the same mistakes over and over again. An endless wheel of hurt, regret and pain – a wheel he couldn’t leave or control despite all the powers in the world. 

Vlad could talk of becoming the master of your own destiny and fill him with visions of a world they controlled, but such believes only proved Vlad to be a bigger fool than him. 

Danny sometimes feared the day Vlad would realize how empty his dreams was and come to take his own life, if that was even possible. 

A part of him would always hate Vlad, but Danny knew in his heart that the day Vlad and his stubborn spirit died of like a smothered flame only to parish, would be the day Danny would truly be all alone. 

Left in a world as an old lost piece without its other half. An incomplete existent waiting for time and the elements to slowly break him down to dust and finally leave him be.  


Such was the curse of being a halfa after all.  


He would never belong anywhere. He would never die. He would never end his ghostly obsessions.  


He would never truly _be_.  


It was still too early for the sun to rise, but Danny didn’t feel like going back to the city and the humans living in it. Not yet at least. He sat down to watch the stars, as he had done so many times before as a child. 

Remembered what it was like to be a little boy on the top of an old borrowed home and watch the sky till his mother return from a ghost hunt, or waited for the loneliness to ease at the boarding school. 

Those lost years when he had avoided the bullies waiting for him at the dormitory, by hiding on the school’s chapel roof till the night settled and name the constellations.  


Bittersweet memories of the person he had once been washed over him in gentle waves. Blended in with the darkness of the sky and reminded him of the little golden memories in the shape of faraway galaxies and shining stars.  


He recalled the news he had seen in the television just a few months back. 

As any other space fanatic and enthusiast, Danny had followed the build of the space shuttle orbiter _“Challenger”_ and placed himself in front of the screen to follow its launching into space with the hopes of yet another step for human kind into the waste space. 

Only to watched the disaster, as it had malfunctioned after disintegrated and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Felt as if it had been more than just a disappointment to the halfa.  


Afterwards he had often found himself wondering if he could have done anything to prevent it, rushed in to safe the passenger, or done something to stop the disaster.  


As a person with power he had the means to do so, but hadn’t. He had just been another bystander to a catastrophe and gawked along with all the other useless screen watchers. 

He had long since figured that the incident wasn’t making him angry just because it was related to his favorite topic in the world, but because it reminded himself of how he was actually running his own life.  


Watching catastrophes one after another, without doing anything but watch.  


With that thought in mind, he almost didn’t register another person seating down on the grass next to him. Ember McLain didn’t say anything and he didn’t exactly give her a reason to, as he continued to ignore her and his problems in favor of the sky. 

The only thing that had never hurt him or made him miserable. For a long time, they just sat there. Watched the stars and observed the lights dime in the city, as the dawn began creeping in on Amity Park in the horizon.  


“Was I really a jazz singer in my human life?”  


Danny didn’t turn his head or show that he had heard her, but responded nevertheless, “yes.”  


The silence returned as he didn’t follow up with anything and Ember looked down at her ruined guitar. Fidget a bit with the strings still keeping the two pieced together. Now without a sound to give or fill the emptiness between them and the night. 

Danny still didn’t feel any regret crushing the damn thing, but he was too tired to ponder whenever this was because of the spell it had inflicted him, or because he simply didn’t care about her or her stupid instrument.  


Both, he guessed.  


“…was I famous?” she suddenly asked in an almost childlike curiosity and successfully breaking his useless line of thoughts. Reminded him of this world he was supposed to act on.  


Danny decided to humor her a bit, “you were the Madonna of NY. Everyone loved your music and yeah, you were pretty good at it.”  


She wrinkled her forehead a bit and turned the two pieces to make them fit right. It didn’t fix the guitar like it the cartoons, but that didn’t stop her from trying before talking again, “I hate jazz music. It’s for old people and nerds.”

“If you say so,” Danny just said and watched the little dipper with more interest than the conversation, “oh, and Walker was your boss.” 

She made a face of disgust, “Walker? As in the asshole who runs a prison in the Ghost Zone _Walker_? Wow, I gotta say, the world sure is small.” 

“Tell me about it,” he hummed and watched the first line of pale light bloom in the horizon. 

Ember sighed and turned to him with a face of insecurity, something he had only seen her make as a human when she had to ask him of something she believed was beneath her or embarrassing. 

“Did I leave…I mean, was there anyone important in my –?” 

Danny didn’t sugarcoat it, he was too tired for that, “you hated your abusive father and had some crazy admires – above the usually I suppose. If it’s any consolation, I killed the one who took your life. As for your love life…I guess you and me almost dated, but I don’t think you really liked me that way – you just wanted to have some fun and piss of my ex. She hated you and your music.” 

“Sounds like me,” she retorted with a little cocky smile and pressed the two halves closer together, making the guitar’s material groan from the effort, “guess that makes Skulker the one.” 

“You’re dating Skulker?” Danny asked, knowing he should be surprised, but wasn’t really. 

It would totally be Vlad to make Skulker distract and spy on Ember like that. 

“I dumped him,” she corrected, and her eyes turned into a mix of sadness and hurt, “he admitted working for Plasmius and I kinda yelled at him. Told him to fuck of.” 

She hugged the guitar a bit tighter, as if more than her feelings were hurt. 

Danny send the guitar a glance, knew that it was the source of the spell that had turned him into a brainwashed fuckbunny of blind love, but couldn’t really hate it for it. 

Some part of him had the feeling that it was the soul of the guitar Kemberly had hugged to her chest and screamed into the moment she had died. Really, he should be angry at Ember, but even that he couldn’t get himself to do. 

He really didn’t care. 

“You were ‘Kemberly’ back then,” he continued and regained her attention, “or ‘Kember’ amongst fellas – I guess that’s just Ember with a ‘K’.” 

“I prefer Ember, it’s cooler,” she replied stubbornly and Danny reminded himself he was talking to the ghost of a white trash school girl, who of all, believed herself to be the answer to the 80’s great teen revolution. 

“Of course, you do.” 

She scoffed at him like he was too old to understand and, in a way, he guessed he was. He was pretty damn old for this shit. Even as ghosts, he was still old enough to be her father – no scratch that, her grandfather at least. 

Grand grandfather if you pushed it enough. 

Felling grumpy like an old man, it took him a bit by surprise by her next words. 

“Sorry I cast that spell on you. That was a hoser move to pull on ya.” 

“It’s okay,” Danny replied automatically and then sighed in annoyance, “well no, not really, but you didn’t know anything about me or Vlad. You didn’t do it out of evil, just to keep us of your back. I can forgive you for that I guess.” 

“So we’re square?” she asked hopefully, suddenly having seemed to realize her survival relied on keeping this god amongst ghosts on her good side. 

Danny just shrugged, “why not, just stop hypnotize people…well you can’t really now that I’ve broken your –” 

He stopped himself from finish that, as she used her last ghostly energy to repair her guitar. She caught his annoyed stare and hurried to pull the instrument out of his reach with a possessive scowl. 

“ – guitar…right, but still, don’t manipulate people with your music and we’re square,” he sighed and rubbed his face, the lack of sleep finally catching up with him. 

“Are you bullshitting me?” she asked angrily, “then how am I supposed to gain energy? I make music, that’s what I do – I need people to chant my name!” 

“Have you ever considered the possibility that people will chant your name at concerts without being hypnotized to do so?” he asked drily and from her face to judge, she hadn’t. 

“Okay listen,” he continued in a tone like an adult teaching a teen – which seemed fitting, taking the situation, “let’s say you wanted to buy a guitar and you had to work for a long time to save up the money for it and then finally bought it with your hard-earned money. But then, by some chance, you also buy a ticket at the lottery and win the exact same guitar. You realize you don’t need both and decide to sell one – which one of the guitars would you then keep?” 

“Phfff,” she uttered, like the answer was easy, “the one I worked for, of course.” 

Danny nodded, “it’s the same principle with your music. You can either work as a real singer and gain the teen’s worship by being an _actual_ artist, doing _actual_ music and work with your _actual_ talent – or just use your magic and get it without having to do anything, or getting better at your music.” 

Ember blinked surprised, clearly never having thought of it like that, or even thought of the possibly of simply being a normal singer without ghostly influence. 

Danny gave her time to think it over and turned back to watch the sun begin to rise behind the city. Waiting for the shadows around them to lose the fight against the light claiming the day. 

“It’s…actually not that bad an idea,” she said lamely, not sounding completely convinced, “and it’s not like I don’t remember any of my human life, it’s just…ya know…not there.” 

“I could help you fill the gabs,” he offered and she shrugged like she didn’t really care. 

“Whatever, apple cheek.” 

Danny smiled a bit. Despite the ghostly appearance, she was beginning to sound more and more like someone he’d once known.

   
 

 _Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

“I told her most of the things I remembered myself and how we’d met,” Danny explained with an unreadable face with potential of all expressions and stared up the ceiling, “she continued to act like she couldn’t give a shit, but I knew she wanted to know more. We ended up walking around for the rest of the morning – we even ended up at the arcade. Vlad had kept his promise about rebuilding it, but also given Nick a bounce of money to make him go on vacation. We sang together at the karaoke. It was fun.” 

Nichols frowned his eyebrows a bit and unbraided his finger to lean back in the chair, not sure what to reply to such a turn of events. But the fact that Danny hadn’t murdered the undead girl was something he could work with. 

Danny sighed and tilted his head to look at him again, “It was, not kidding. Have you any idea what it’s like to have two people with good voices sing a duet on a karaoke? We totally rocked.” 

“And then she left to be an honest singer?” the old police officer asked slowly, hoping it was the case for the girl’s…ghost’s own sake. 

Vlad surely wouldn’t want yet another love triangle between him and Danny now. It would be the best if she left now that Danny had helped her see her errors. 

Danny nodded to his great relief, “she went back to pack down her stuff with the band to continue on her tour – but not before asking me to come with her. I said I would think about it. I didn’t really.” 

“Understandable,” Nichols retorted and felt some unease in his guts, “but you couldn’t really stay in Amity either. Not now that the entire town knew you were Phantom – how come that never came out to the rest of the world by the way? I’ve never heard of it.” 

“People didn’t have smartphones back then,” Danny smirked and pulled his feet down from the table to lean closer to the man, as if wanting to share a secret, “and Vlad had unknowing secured that the none of the cameras had any recording of me changing into Phantom either. The only evidence that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom was the same, was the testimony of some confused teens and journalists at the scene.” 

Danny’s smile left him just as fast as it had formed and he leaned back again, hugged himself and looked to the side with lidded eyes, “but it was enough for me to know I couldn’t stay. Not with that many people knowing who I really was.” 

Nichols nodded and ran over the immortal’s list of loose ends one by one in his head, “you had to leave Dani and Valerie to then.” 

Danny clicked his tongue, looking more annoyed than sad about his own misfortune, “yeah. I went to Valerie’s mansion after I parted with Ember. The journalists had already swarmed it to get a comment from the town’s supposed ghost expert and known friend of the ghost-man. Not to mention Dani, who was supposed to be my family. It wasn’t hard to figure it would be the same with my own house and Vlad’s mansion, but I had called Dani and Val before handed in the arcade and knew where to find them.” 

Danny rubbed his face and recalled how the two huntresses had welcomed him back with open arms in the high school’s basement and asked him more questions than he had wanted to answer. 

He had appreciated their concern, but really, there wasn’t much they could have done to change his mind on leaving Amity Park. 

“Val wanted me to stay in order for her to buy me a fake identity for me to live with, while Dani just wanted me to stay with her. Told me we could all just leave and move to somewhere else, but I wouldn’t force them to do something like that. Dani had her students and Valerie lived for Axion. I had to leave alone, but they wouldn’t listen. I ended up hiding them in the arcade and left to take care of my unfinished business.” 

Nichols hadn’t expected anything else, but knew that Danny ended up alone at the end. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be in this interrogation room. 

Danny took up the last lose end himself, as he slowly inhaled and moved on with his story, “and then there was Vlad. I had to confront him at some point before I left and make sure he would hunt me or hurt them. So I told them I would return and went to find him.” 

Danny closed his eyes and seemed to ready himself for what came next, “I found him in a hotel room. He had been waiting for me to come to him for once in our lives. And I did.”

   
 

 _Year 1986, a hotel room, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_

_**“He had been waiting for me to come to him for once in our lives. And I did.”** _

   
 

Vlad watched the smoke twill from his cigarette and tried to remember why he had stopped smoking those years ago. 

Had it been to appear better and healthier? As a cover to why he didn’t get wrinkles like all his other business peers smoking like chimneys and getting the appearance suiting it? 

He didn’t know. He didn’t really concern himself with it either, he had just needed some distraction to keep himself busy until Daniel returned to him. 

Smoking didn’t exactly do anything to his ghostly influenced biology, but he had always appreciated the calming effect the narcotic provided him. 

If it was just a placebo, he honestly didn’t want to know, as long as it felt like it made him in control. 

Not that he didn’t at the moment, he just hated waiting. 

To his fortune, he didn’t have to wait for long. To help the other find him, he had allowed his ghost signature to stand out freely, as a beacon for any ghost to see and he soon felt Daniel’s own grace the building and move to reach his floor. 

Vlad remained in his chair and blew a slow huff of smoke as Daniel phased through the door. 

“You’re pretty shitty at hiding from me, you know that right?” 

Vlad smirked at that and stubbed his cigarette in the tray of decorated glass, “we both know I have no reason to hide from you. But I do have a question for you, badger, do you by any chance remember what happened during the love spell? Were you conscious?” 

The younger kept up his poker face, but a clenched fist at his side told Vlad the answer even before Daniel opened his mouth. 

“I was, I knew what was happening around me, I just couldn’t do anything about it.” 

Vlad nodded, glad that it was the case, “then you know I only kissed Miss. McLain as a means to break the spell. Did you by any chance kill her?” 

“No.” 

“A shame,” Vlad muttered and offered the other a cigarette. 

Daniel didn’t as much as look at them. 

“I’m going to leave Amity Park and I don’t want you following me,” Daniel stated without room for compromise and Vlad felt something sting in his guts, but ignored it. 

He had been expected this and he could work around it – he wasn’t one of the world’s most successful business man for nothing. He knew how to negotiate. 

“You know I can’t allow that, Daniel.” 

Daniel sighed in annoyance and in a move faster than lightning, he had grabbed Vlad’s shirt, dragged him in and sneered into his face with bared teeth, “you broke the truce. You broke the rules. You –” 

_Broke your heart?_ Vlad thought quietly, but Daniel didn’t confirm it and didn’t get the chance, as Vlad forced his hands of and pushed him up against the wall, “I don’t expect you to understand, my dear, but it has never been a secret that I hunted those pages. Don’t deny it, we’re far too old for such nonsense.” 

“Oh, I know,” Daniel scoffed coldly and challenged him with a leer, “I should have learned by now that I can’t trust a word you say. I can’t believe I even took you back just like that – what was I thinking!? You’re Vlad Masters for fuck sake! I have lived with you almost all my life, how could I fall for you like that?” 

“Daniel nothing has changed between us,” Vlad began, but Daniel wouldn’t listen and pushed him of him like it was nothing and fronted him. 

“You’re right – it will ALWAYS come down to this! You hurting me and me being an utter idiot! Things will never change! You’ll always be one seriously crazed up fruitloop!” 

That did it for Vlad and he confronted him with a sneer. Daniel wanted him to be the villain? To be the bad guy in this? To play the game of black and white world views? 

“A _fruitloop_ wouldn’t have been able to make his first million with a series of invisible burglaries! A _fruitloop_ would never have thought to overshadow enough millionaires to become one of the richest men on the planet! A _fruitloop_ wouldn’t have been able to track down, decipher and collect the entire journal of Sojourn! I. Am. Not. A. Fruitloop! And I am not a villain,” Vlad uttered and heard his own voice go raw, “all I wanted…was your love.” 

“Forget it,” the younger snarled and walked pass him, laying distance with a cold glare and turning his back to him, “that ship has sailed! Even you knew that while I was under that spell – the only chance for you getting me back was keeping me as I was and you blew it!” 

Vlad stepped back in outrage. Hadn’t the foolish halfa understood anything? 

“Of course, I knew that! If I wanted a slave I would have kept you like that, but I didn’t, Daniel! I didn’t! I would never hurt you like that.” 

“Fuck you,” Daniel replied lowly and turned back to him with anger, “you have hurt me for 70 years and not keeping me under a spell can’t undo what you have done to me – nothing can! And we both know you didn’t break the spell out of _love_. You did it because you want me to be with you freely, you want me to choose you to, because nothing else has ever worked out for you. I’m too strong for any cage now – there is nothing for you to chain me with!” 

Vlad clenched his teeth, deep down he knew Daniel was right, but he would never admit something like that. He had his pride. And when everything came down to it, this wasn’t about him. 

“I know you’re scared –” 

“Am NOT!” 

“ – but it no secret between us anymore that you still have feelings for me. If any, these last few weeks have proved that point. I know you will never admit you’d those feeling for me since I became your mentor, but I won’t let you run from us anymore. I can’t let you leave Amity Park if it isn’t by my side.” 

Daniel rubbed his temples in annoyance and shook his head, “or what?” 

Vlad forced himself to inhale instead of doing something irrational. Did he really have to repeat history? 

“I am one page away from completing Sojourn’s journal, Daniel. When I take over the world you will want to be by my side. The human race’s survival and future depend on whenever you’re joining me to help them or fight with them and create the next third world war. And you still have two humans left here in Amity I know you care about. Don’t force me to use them as a means against you.” 

Vlad knew he had won. It was the thing about Daniel. He cared about humans too much, it would always be his Achilles heel and Vlad’s winning ace. 

At least until now. 

“I’ve lost a lot of things during my lifetime, Vlad,” Daniel admitted with a tired expression and moved up to him to adjust Vlad’s bolo tie, much to the other’s surprise, “and right now…I think I’ve just lost the ability to care anymore. Dani and Val can take care of themselves, they honestly don’t need me. Not really. Go ahead, take over the world and be the king of the ashes. I won’t try and stop you anymore.” 

Vlad was still baffled as Daniel finished the tie and moved to leave without as much as looking at him. In disbelieve he hurried and grabbed the other’s shoulders, not believing his own ears, “you can’t possible mean that. It’s – ” 

“The only way for you to own me? I know,” Daniel said and smiled like he had no cares in the world, “should have kept me as a love slave instead of waiting for me to come freely. Can’t win every time I suppose.” 

Vlad was only 50% sure if this was bluff or not and it scared him not to be certain. 

At this rate, Daniel wasn’t a halfa he could bend with force or battle for control – they had tried that and Vlad had come out as the one with the losing hand each time, although with most chips to use. 

Daniel couldn’t be persuaded with violence or simple threats anymore. Vlad had to resort to the only other possibility now. 

The heart of his soulmate. 

“It’s true when you say a part of me wants you to return my feeling freely,” Vlad admitted and ignored the suspicion forming in the other’s blue eyes, “but I’m afraid that’s how love works, badger. Love has to be returned in order to be just that. That’s why I couldn’t give you this.” 

Vlad pulled out the little box from his jacket pocket and ran a thumb across the surface, feeling Daniel watching him, “I have carried this around for a couple of years now and worked up the courage to ask you during these past weeks.” 

He looked up and found that Daniel had turned his head in dismission. But you didn’t have to know the younger halfa to see that he was fighting a battle with his emotions at the moment. 

Vlad moved closer and opened the box to reveal a gold ring with a green stone to the other. 

“It was once your father’s class-ring. He gave it to me while we were working on the portal and told me to give it to you when you decided to marry. Well…in a way I can still honor his memory by giving it to you, maybe just not the way he had imagined it.” 

Daniel didn’t make a move to accept it, but Vlad hadn’t expected it either. Not now at least. 

“Marrying you won’t change anything,” Daniel sneered through clenched teeth, “a ring and some fancy party won’t stop me from fighting you or run from you. That ring doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t.” 

“I know,” Vlad admitted quietly and turned to lay a hand on the other’s shoulder, “but we can’t keep doing this, Daniel. When will you understand that I’m the only person to ever love you fully? To accept you no matter what?” 

Daniel didn’t respond and hid his eyes behind a hand, not to hide tears, but maybe to keep up the illusion of being in control. Vlad would give him time, as long as Daniel accepted they had to leave Amity together, that is. 

“What do you want from me?” the raven-haired suddenly whispered. 

Vlad frowned, thought it was clear. 

“I want you.” 

“NO!” Daniel exploded and pushed him of him with an angry scowl, “you _had_ me. You had ME! We were together and happy, I opened my arms to you even though all of me knew it wasn’t right and I handed myself over to you. Gave myself over to you freely. YOU _HAD_ ME, VLAD! And still…that wasn’t enough for you. _I_ wasn’t enough for you. So what _do_ you want?” 

Vlad blinked in surprise. Tried to find a way to justify himself, but found that he couldn’t. Why he had acted as he did? Because the journal had been right in front of him – why settle with just Daniel when he could have the journal as well? It was his destiny after all. 

His call in life – to be a ruler! 

He wanted all this and share it with Daniel, as his beloved and prince of this new world they were going to shape of the ashes of mankind and the ghost world. He had a plan with his existence and 

Daniel was a part of this. They were meant to be rulers – Gods! 

_Join me, Vlad. You and I are the only ones to fully understand their importance – the power of Sojourn’s Journal. With you by my side, we could rule the Ghost Zone and earth like kings. Like gods! Imagine, a world inhabited by ghosts, ruled by the undead and the humans in chains where they belong._

Dan’s words washed though him like a cold shower and the doubts which had filled him since his plans of jeopardizing his and Daniel’s fragile relationship for the sake of getting one of the last pages, returned tenfold. 

He closed his eyes and reminded himself that Daniel wasn’t Dan and things would be different, but found that he couldn’t open his mouth and sell this without it being a lie. 

“Do you remember the time in the chapel?” he heard himself ask instead. 

Daniel scowled coldly, “vaguely – what do you _think?_ ” 

“You called out my name.” 

Daniel turned to him with some slight confusion and Vlad recalled the day he had taken Daniel by force in the old castle’s chapel. Wished he hadn’t, but despite it all, a part of Daniel had wanted it to. 

“You called out my name. You never did since.” 

Danny look away. Guessing he was right. Danny had never uttered his name during intercourse after that. It had seemed…like surrender. 

“Is that why?” Danny asked quietly, “in order for you to settle with just me, I have to surrender to you completely? Is that it? Will you be satisfied then? Will I be enough for you then?” 

Vlad felt his chest tighten. Couldn’t stand the broken tone his soulmate was trying to hide and knew deep down that, yes. If Daniel truly loved him, gave himself over with heart and soul…the rest of the world could burn for all he cared. 

All he wanted was Daniel’s love. 

To say that he loved him to. 

“Is it too much to ask?” he retorted and lifted his hand to caress the other’s cheek, “to have my love returned? Why can’t you just admit it and be mine?” 

Daniel turned his head away, defied him once again and Vlad lost his temper. Grabbed the other. 

“What do I have to do to make you see!? What is it that _you_ want, Daniel? Hmm? You want me to become some saint and change into some goody-two-shoed hero like yourself, to make up for a past that’s just as much yours as it is mine!?” 

A hard look formed in the other’s eyes and Daniel forced his hands of him with a snarl, “maybe! But I suppose that leaves us with the obvious, _doesn’t it?_ You’re not gonna change and I’ not gonna bend!” 

Vlad growled in anger and both transformed out of habit. Bared their fangs and flared their hands with each color of pure ecto-energy. 

Realizing he had lost his temper once again, Vlad broke the fighting stance first and watched the other with determined red eyes, not open for discussion. 

Plasmius pursed his lips to a firm line, hid his sorrow behind a stern voice, “I’ll give you till midnight to make your choice, Daniel. But know that if you run, your humans will pay the price and there’s no place on earth I can’t find them. Now _go_.” 

Daniel scowled in deep despise, but did as he was told and left without a word. Vlad felt his signature leave his surrounding and closed his red eyes. 

“He will return. He has to.”

   
 

He found Dani and Valerie where he had left them. Inside the closed arcade. 

“Danny!” Dani greeted and jumped into his arm with a bearhug – or maybe a bunnyhug, she wasn’t that strong when it came down to it. 

“You found Vlad?” Valerie asked and led him to the half covered serving disk where they had started the pizza heater and taken a cola or two from the fridge. 

“I did,” Danny replied and tried to put it as gently as possible, “he told me to enjoy my last hours as a free man with you and then return to him at midnight.” 

“Or else he’ll kills us?” Dani asked calm as ever and Danny nodded, no need to make it worse by telling them about the whole ‘burn the world and its human population’ ordeal. 

“Do you have a plan?” Valerie asked hopefully and handed him a cola, practical as ever. 

Danny shook his head, “no, but I have the rest of the evening to figure something out. I'll think of something.” 

As far as he could tell, both of them didn’t find that wisely and he decided it was time to change topic, “so, if it’s not rude of me asking – why did I have to track you two down to the school of all places again? I thought you were safe at your mansion?” 

Valerie crossed her arms in annoyance, “we were, but then the Guys in White showed up. Demanded that we gave them permission to use Axion’s facilities and some giant ghost shield they insisted I had hidden under the lab to cage all spirits inside of Amity till they’d found you.” 

She blew a strand out of her face with a sour look, “I told them to fuck of and use the taxpayer’s money as they always do. I still have no idea how they found out about my giant shield though.” 

Danny had some questions, but Dani took up the story for her as Valerie fell into memory lane to figure out who had snitched, “they tried to get into the mansion with a fake permit, so Valerie locked down the mansion and we used Val’s new speeders to leave out the secret tunnel leading to the lab. We took a pair of new boards and suits, and tried finding you. Flew around town a couple of times, but you were nowhere to find, so we ended up at the school. But this place’s a way better hideout. It looks exactly the same as the old one.” 

Danny followed her gaze and had to admit she was right. Despite the plastic cover and boxes with unplugged machines still waiting to be placed, the place was built to look like a copy of the old arcade. 

Just newer and with machines that had never tasted a coin before. Danny knew the arcade had gotten new management after Nick took off to enjoy the summer at the beach, but wished the guy could have been there with them nonetheless. 

With or without Vlad, Danny would have to leave Amity before either the press or the Guys in White caught up with him and if this was his last night in Amity, he might as well spend it with friends. 

“You should leave now,” Valerie said with regret in her voice, but focused on what was best for him, “if you take of now, you will have a head start before Vlad comes looking for you at midnight.” 

“Maybe I should,” Danny admitted and pulled of the cover of a vintage machine, “but I think I’ll rather spend the time with you two.” 

“Danny –” 

“Don’t take this from me,” he stated a little harder than he probably should and Valerie sighed. 

Danny looked away and bite his anger and worry down for now. He wasn’t going to think about Vlad now. 

“You guys wanna play a game?” he asked and had Dani’s attention instantly. 

Val, who had never played an arcade game before, wasn’t much for playing at first, but as soon as Danny and Dani had explained a shooting game for her and she’d gotten the first point with a bull’s eye, she couldn’t stop again. 

Both Danny and Dani had to throw the towel in the ring after twenty minutes. To far behind with points and loosing big time to the merciless sniper goddess. 

Dani turned out to be the supreme when they started the _Tron_ bikes and Danny made both of them laugh, as he jumped into the machine and flew after their pixel bikes to race them. 

Cheating when he could. 

They all seemed to have forgotten their problems, as they sat down to eat frozen cardboard tasting pizza from the fridge and enjoyed their can soda, safe and sound behind the closed shutters closing the arcades glass facade from prying eyes. 

From the street view, the arcade looked closed for the summer and the sign in front of the taped door warned that the place wouldn’t be open for business before a few weeks. 

Danny was first reminded of his deadline, as he searched for a song on the karaoke machine and caught the reflection of a circle and look up to find a clock on the wall. Found that he had half an hour left before midnight. 

Valerie looked over his shoulder as he chose a song and frowned, “you sure you want to sing that right now?” 

Danny nodded, “suits the occasion.” 

Both females took a seat at the disk to watch him and Dani bit her lip as she recognized the music. Danny ignored their pitiful looks and began to sing.

   
 

_“These eyes cry every night for you_  
_These arms long to hold you again_  
_The hurtin's on me, yeah_  
_But I will never be free, no, my baby, no, no_  
_You gave a promise to me, yeah_  
_And you broke it, you broke it, oh, no!”_

__

_“These eyes watched you bring my world to an end_  
_This heart could not accept and pretend_  
_The hurtin's on me, yeah_  
_But I will never be free, no, no, no_  
_You took the vow with me, yeah_  
_And you spoke it, you spoke it, babe!”_

__

_“These eyes are cryin'_  
_These eyes have seen a lot of loves_  
_But they're never gonna see another one like I had with you!”_

   
 

Danny didn’t know why he insisted on hurting himself like this. 

Maybe he just hated himself, maybe a small part of him still wished Vlad hadn’t betrayed him and just stayed with him. 

Stayed a fruitloop with him and played pretend, instead of a power-hungry monster demanding his companionship in a cruel world he was ready to make even crueler. 

Danny didn’t know why he did this, why he still hoped for Vlad to feel bad for what he had done to him in the past. 

They may have a shared past, but Vlad was wrong if he believed they were even. Danny had hurt him, but he could never hurt him as much as Vlad had hurt him. 

Not even death would even that score. 

He couldn’t return to Vlad after this, not after he had betrayed that fragile trust Danny had dared to offer him. He had warned the man not to break this truce and if you made conditions, you had to stay true to them, or else they would lose their value all together. 

Then nothing would mean anything. 

Still, he wasn’t going to kill Vlad. It would never solve anything and he found no satisfaction in the thought of it. 

Vlad’s suffering would never make him happy. 

But neither would he be if he left with Vlad. 

He would lose this game no matter what and the only thing still keeping him from just running, was the looming threat still hanging over Val and Dani’s heads. They were so young, had all life ahead of them and most of all – they had something real together. 

Something he and Vlad would never come close to. The thought saddened him and he asked himself for the fifth time that night, if anything that had happened these past weeks had ever been real. 

Some part of him believed so. 

Vlad loved him in his own distorted way. Wanted Danny to return those feelings, as if nothing had happened between them and simply wipe out his past. 

But if Vlad couldn’t give up his grand plans for the future, then how could he ever hope for Danny to give up the horrible past? 

_It’s time you learn to show some responsibility._

Danny nodded slowly as he ended the song. It was time for him to do the right thing. He owed Valerie and Dani that much. He owed it to himself. 

“It’s almost time,” he uttered and they rose to come to him. 

“Just go, Danny,” Valerie insisted and took his hands, “forget about Vlad, we can take care of ourselves, you don’t have to worry about us.” 

“Just…” Dani sighed and tried to hide her tears, “promise you’ll come back one day, okay?” 

Danny nodded and pulled her in for a hug. His own flesh and blood, Jazz’s granddaughter and his grandniece. The part of him that was all human and in so many ways his own reflection. 

“Tell Ethan I’m going to miss him – that and his tasteful graffiti.” 

Valerie gave him an actually bearhug and handed him a credit card, “untraceable. Just use as much as you need. I just use it for emergencies. Damn, my mascara is running.” Danny felt his own eyes sting, but bite it down. He had another place to be. 

“Don’t think about Vlad. He will leave town tonight to.” 

They both opened their mouths to talk him out of it, but Danny had made his mind, “I have to go now – but can you two do me a favor?” 

“Anything,” they promised and Danny smiled before pointing to the karaoke machine with a thumb. 

“Could you sing nr. 7 for me? I need a soundtrack for my departure.” 

Dani punched his shoulder with a scowl that was more than halfhearted and he sat back at the disk, as they chose the number. He watched as Dani poked Val with a grin and the older woman made a face, before handing her the mic with a kiss. 

They screwed around for a bit to find out who was the first singer and whatso, but soon they were singing the duet and smiled with glee. Lost to the energy and wibe of the music. 

Danny listened for another minute and imagined what they could have been. What would have happened if his past hadn’t caught up to him and forced him to leave yet another Phantom team behind. 

As they stood there, he could almost tell himself it was Tucker and Sam standing in their place. Tucker’s ghost showing in Valerie’s dark skin and green intelligent eyes. Sam’s in Dani’s black hair and slender build. 

Both of them beautiful and full of life. 

Both of them utterly human. 

A tear ran down his cheek and mixed in the corner of his smile. 

The years of lose and unsaid longings coming down to this. Filling him with the sound of four voices becoming two and two sets of memories fuse into one long film of an eternal friendship that would always live on in his heart. 

He watched them sing with one last smile, before he slowly phased out of the arcade and into the night, with their voices in the back of his head.

   
 

__

_“Listen baby, ain't no mountain high,_  
_Ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough baby_  
_If you need me call me, no matter where you are,_  
_No matter how far; don't worry baby_  
_Just call my name; I'll be there in a hurry_  
_You don't have to worry!”_

 

__

_“Oh baby there ain't no mountain high enough,_  
_Ain't no valley low enough,_  
_Ain't no river wide enough_  
_To keep me from getting to you babe!”_

 

__

_“Remember the day I set you free_  
_I told you you could always count on me darling_  
_From that day on, I made a vow,_  
_I'll be there when you want me,_  
_Some way, some how!”_

 

__

_“Oh baby there ain't no mountain high enough,_  
_Ain't no valley low enough,_  
_Ain't no river wide enough_  
_To keep me from getting to you babe!”_

 

__

_“Oh no darling_  
_No wind, no rain_  
_Or winters cold can stop me baby, no no baby_  
_'Cause you are my goal_  
_If you're ever in trouble;_  
_I'll be there on the double_  
_Just send for me, oh baby, ha!”_

 

__

_“My love is alive_  
_Way down in my heart_  
_Although we are miles apart_  
_If you ever need a helping hand,_  
_I'll be there on the double_  
_Just as fast as I can_  
_Don't you know that there!”_

 

__

_“Ain't no mountain high enough,_  
_Ain't no valley low enough,_  
_Ain't no river wide enough_  
_To keep me from getting to you babe!”_


	50. Promises are broken and new vows are made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny once traveled the old world  
>  _Tucker and continued to celebrate the holidays with the Foley family right up until I turned fourteen. When we were fifteen and ready to leave for summer, Mr. Masters sent us off on an educational journey. He and my family seemed to have caught the hint and come to understand that I would continue to stay away with or without their consent. We traveled with the best of necessities of course and he sent us a tutor along as our guide. Rich bastard. I saw most of Europe along with Tucker that summer and we decided to do it again next year and at that trip we brought Sam along._
> 
> And on a travel alone, Danny recieved a gift  
>  _The ghost began to lose color and became transparent. Ghost Writer closed Danny’s finger around the key._  
>  “You may one day, many, many years from now and beyond any length of human life come to seek answers. Long after your loved ones had perished and your memories become dreams, you shall come to fulfill your own ghost obsession and see the light. But you will never reach it, oh half-human, you will never be able to reach the other side. That is your curse.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the Far Frozen, Danny learned of the Halfas  
>  _The engraving of a white painted figure lighted up in the center of a larger pentagram of smaller scenes. Sanding on a white gate, the figure’s eyes shone from the light in the cave and Danny realized it was real emeralds. Despite being a simple image without much details, there was no doubt that it was supposed to be Danny. Little bits of his life showed in the pictures surrounding it. He touched the one picturing his fight with Undergrowth. Another was with Hotep RA and the time he had helped Dora overthrow her brother._  
>  A ring of green rectangles encircled the white figure and it took Danny a second to realize what they were supposed to be.  
>  _“Sojourn’s pages…”_  
>  _“Indeed, great one,” Frostbite nodded and traced the images with a claw, “the ghost known as Sojourn was the one to speak your prophesies millennia ago. As an oracle, he came to our village to seek out the mystery of this place and learn about our stories of the ancient. He learned of our ways, honored our traditions and in return, we taught him the secrets of ice powers. Helped him develop his own core.”_  
>  _Frostbite walked out after Danny and took the torch with him. The green fire passed a pair of ruby eyes for a second. Lighted up the last wall where a blue figure with a green heart and red core stood above a dark gate. The figure was encircled by a ring of pages as well, but the little stories around him wasn’t light ones, but dark terrible deeds. The opposite image of that of the Ghost Zone’s savior._
> 
> And with that a vision from a yeti shaman  
>  _Danny didn't need to see more and whished for it to change. The screen did as commanded and a sequence of unknown places showed one by one._  
>  _ **A picture of Jazz hanging in a house in a town called Amity Park.**_  
>  _ **A vault in a library in the Ghost Zone.**_  
>  _ **A child’s pirate hat on top of an office building in London.**_  
>  _ **A piano inside a casino in Seattle.**_  
>  _The vison ended, and the screen became dark. Danny stared at it for a long time, before lifting his gaze to meet the shaman's._  
>  _"You know what to do now," she said and Danny slowly nodded._
> 
> Ember makes her amends with Danny  
>  _“And then she left to be an honest singer?” the old police officer asked slowly, hoping it was the case for the girl’s…ghost’s own sake._  
>  _Danny nodded to his great relief, “she went back to pack down her stuff to continue on her tour – but not before asking me to come with her. I said I would think about it. I didn’t really.”_
> 
> And a ring as old as the halfas came into light  
>  _Nevertheless, Nichols had the feeling that Danny wasn’t exactly the romantic type or particularly interested in easy pussy. The class-ring on his right hand told the man that Danny might have someone to be faithful to, but it was unlikely. The ring could simple be a fashion choice. This mid-twenty-something kid didn’t seem like the husband type either. He seemed gloomy, melancholy, a loner. A dangerous loner._  
>  _"My story has no meaning, Mr. Officer."_
> 
>  
> 
> _Vlad moved closer and opened the box to reveal a gold ring with a green stone to the other._  
>  “It was once your father’s class-ring. He gave it to me while we were working on the portal and told me to give it to you when you decided to marry. Well…in a way I can still honor his memory by giving it to you, maybe just not the way he had imagined it.”
> 
>  
> 
> And between the two, some things was said  
>  _“Do you remember the time in the chapel?” Vlad heard himself ask instead._  
>  _Daniel scowled coldly, “vaguely – what do you **think?** ”_  
>  _“You called out my name.”_  
>  _Daniel turned to him with some slight confusion and Vlad recalled the day he had taken Daniel by force in the old castle’s chapel. Wished he hadn’t, but despite it all, a part of Daniel had wanted it to._  
>  _“You called out my name. You never did since.”_  
>  _Danny look away. Guessing he was right. Danny had never uttered his name during intercourse after that. It had seemed…like surrender._  
>  _“Is that why?” Danny asked quietly, “in order for you to settle with just me, I have to surrender to you completely? Is that it? Will you be satisfied then? Will I be enough for you then?”_
> 
> But once again they part in bad blood  
>  _Realizing he had lost his temper once again, Vlad broke the fighting stance first and watched the other with determined red eyes, not open for discussion._  
>  _Plasmius pursed his lips to a firm line, hid his sorrow behind a stern voice, “I’ll give you till midnight to make your choice, Daniel. But know that if you run, your humans will pay the price and there’s no place on earth I can’t find them. Now go.”_
> 
> * * *
> 
> see endnote for author note
> 
> * * *

_Year 1986, a hotel room, Amity Park, Minnesota, USA_

Daniel returned to him exactly at midnight. 

Vlad had taken his precautions, of course. While Daniel had fooled around and made his farewell with his humans and made plans for how to run from him or possible defeat him, Vlad had planted duplicates all over town and brought a ghost shield to the very hotel he was staying at. 

The shield was (stolen) borrowed from the dear Miss. Gray and Vlad had paired it up with some of his own devices, in order to create a human and ghost secured shield. 

As soon as Daniel entered the hotel, he wouldn’t be able to leave the building before Vlad allowed him to do so. 

Should it come to a fight, Vlad would have a couple of duplicates and the Fright Knight ready to bring the two huntresses to the hotel – and to secure they wouldn’t be interrupted, Vlad had bought the entire hotel chain and made every guest and employee leave the building for the night. 

They would be alone and if Daniel was as smart as you could expect a grown adult to be, he would submit and leave with Vlad without too much trouble. 

He had no choice whatsoever. 

He stared ahead as a well-known ghost signature neared the hotel and he waited on the edge of the king-sized bed with patient. Vlad activated the shield with his remote the second Daniel’s signature had stepped inside the building and remained seated as he waited. 

Hid the remote away in his jacket pocket and found his fingers brushing the little box beside it. He took it out to open it one more time and held the ring out to make the stone shine in the light of the lamps. 

He remembered choosing it with Jack right before their graduation. He himself had ordered a ring with a red stone, while Jack – predictable as ever – had wanted an orange stone. 

Unfortunate the University hadn’t any orange garnets, or diamonds for that matter, in storage, meaning he would have to choose something from the class-ring magazine. 

The oaf had then settled on a green emerald, in case he “got ectoplasm on it from all the ghost hunting he was going to do”. Vlad shook his head in old morbid amusement and brushed the stone with care. 

To him it seemed to pale to be the color of ectoplasm. It’s was more likely to be the shade of a certain halfa’s eyes. Eyes that burned with a powerful rage and laughed with carless joy. 

Eyes that had stolen Vlad’s heart away. 

He placed the box safely on the bedside table, as his guest reached the floor and waited for him to enter. Either to fight him or to surrender. Vlad was prepared for either. 

“Daniel,” he greeted as the other entered the room, “I see you have dropped the silly thought of running of. I’m proud of you.” 

Daniel didn’t answer, as he stood there in the door. Instead, he looked down in something close to submission and closed the door with a simple expression. Remained with his back to Vlad, as he hung up his jacket. 

Vlad scoffed from the sudden tractable act and turned his head to see that the moon had risen outside the two open French doors to the small balcony. 

“If you are here to fight me, you might as well begin so we can get it over with,” he continued arrogantly while Daniel took of his shoes, “I have your little friends under watch as we speak and unlike Skulker, the Fright Knight has never been one to understand just how fragile humans can be. He might hurt them just by bringing them here.” 

Daniel was still silent and took the first steps towards Vlad and the bed. Those pale blue eyes unreadable and strangely eerie. Like still water with lethal stream hidden just beneath. 

Vlad frowned, but wouldn’t be intimidated by this unpredictable play, “I was thinking we could go on a vacation you and me. Just a couple of years in the sun in order for the humans to forget our identities, before we return to Wisconsin to live in the castle. I’ve heard the Greek islands has the most relaxing beaches.” 

He kept talking while watching the other and followed him with his eyes, as Daniel came closer. Vlad’s ramble became a bit hasty, as Daniel then went and sat down beside him of all things. 

Daniel’s face was still unreadable, but there was something just beneath the surface of that expression, that made Vlad’s red light go off and warn him to stop him. 

He finally stopped talking, as one of Daniel’s hands lifted towards his face. 

“Daniel, what do you think yo–” 

“How long are you going to drown, Vlad?” Daniel asked quietly with pitiful eyes, as he laid his hand softly against the man’s cheek. 

Caressed him tenderly with a thumb. 

Vlad opened his mouth, confused, but said nothing as the other leaned in to kiss his neck. Thought of all the traps Daniel could have set with this and shuddered. 

Not to single out the fear of having his neck snapped – a thought that made him grab the other in alarm and stare into his eyes for an explanation. 

Was this all a trap? A fool’s play to make Vlad relax in order to strike a blow to his heart? An attempt to win time for something entire else? An act of luring? 

_What?_

Daniel’s eyes gave no answer and Vlad frowned, all self-assurance of the situation gone with the wind. He tightened his hands holding the other in place and mentally prepared himself to fight the other, but then Daniel surprised him. 

He leaned in and kissed him. 

Vlad didn’t respond at first, but there was something _awfully_ gentle about the way Daniel pressed his lips against his and before he knew of it, he responded and tried to take control. 

But Daniel simply pulled back and shook his head. Remained mute with a gentle, yet illegible expression, as he led Vlad’s hand to press against the other’s chest. Feel the heartbeat that belonged to his human heart. 

The one thing Vlad wanted the most. 

Vlad swallowed, had to admit he was surprised. Daniel and he had been having tender sex during their little reunion here in Amity, but there was something more to this. 

Something so wholehearted that it almost made him want to curl up and lay down to sleep for a long time with his arms around the other. 

The sweet gesture that was Daniel’s slow kisses wasn’t what he had expected and he turned his head a bit to ask what Daniel was planning, but then the younger moaned quietly against his skin. 

_“Vlad”_ , he moaned quietly and kissed the corner of the man’s lips. 

Vlad’s eyes widened slightly, something vulnerable shining through. Afraid of hoping to much, but still longing for it. 

“Vladimir,” Danny whispered and cupped the man’s cheeks gently, as he pressed their foreheads together and stared into his midnight eyes with open access to his very soul, “I just want to be with you.” 

Vlad’s throat tightened, his mind lost to emotions. Old longings and broken strings of attachment reforming to dissolve the hard shell he had used years to form around his old heart. He had never felt more valuable than this moment and yet…neither had Daniel. 

_In order for you to settle with just me, I have to surrender to you completely? Is that it? Will you be satisfied then? Will I be enough for you then?_

Tears spilled from the old halfa’s eyes and Danny kissed them away. Continued to whisper his name and take in the man’s love with the same tender touch, as a mother’s embrace. 

Vlad felt something inside of him break completely, but this time it wasn’t painful. 

It was something he needed. 

Hands braided in their lap and fingers found strands to run through. Vlad’s tears fell like they would never end and Danny accepted it all with soft touches and repeat of the name he had never allowed himself to utter this close to the man. 

None of them remembered when they had laid down on the bed, or when they had lost their cloths, but it didn’t really matter. In that moment, there was only them and there was only this moment they shared. 

For once, Vlad didn’t care about taking control or be the dominating between them and Danny rewarded him by worshipping him with his own body. Let him into his heart with wholehearted caresses and lead the man’s hand to phase through his chest as he transformed. 

Allowed his hand to touch the cold core of ice that was his valuable center and undead soul. Vapor of fire and lighting met water and ice. 

Cold and hot sent colored stream through the room and bathed them in the energy, that was their curse and their blessing. Their other halves and their inner demons. 

Just as Fenton gave himself over to Masters, Plasmius and Phantom finally came at peace and cupped each other’s cores like each most precious treasure. 

Words of comfort and emotions was whispered in the dark and gazes was returned with understanding. 

Understanding that only immortality could fully comprehend and hope to find precious, in a world where everything was perishable and nothing ever lasts, no matter how much you may care. 

There was only them. There would never be anything else. 

They were alone. 

But right now, none of them could care. They could still dream and tonight they could be blind to the fact, that the coming day would chase all shadows away and banish the safe darkness, with all it’s hard realities and heavy choices. 

Danny closed his eyes and rocked into the man and halfa, he would never be able to let go. The one that would never really get away or leave him in his mind. No matter where he went and what he might believe, this would always be the only lasting thing. 

Time would age them and change them, but they would live on. They would never parish and they would never find another solace than this. 

Danny could run and run and run and still end up right in Vlad’s arms, as long as the earth was round and all roads would lead him back to him. 

Vlad could hunt and hunt and hunt and still end up being the one who was lost and found, as long as Danny still had a heart and remembered the strings attached. 

The world was their theater and only they could decide if it was a tragedy or comedy, only they could decide upon playing god or slave, human or spirit, lovers or enemies. 

The connection of their bodies and voices leaving the other broken was nothing, but a fleeting moment in a lifetime, but for two beings without limits of time, this was a turn. And maybe to something final for them both. 

Vlad whispered his love for him and Danny accepted it all. 

His tears landed silently on the pillow and made simple stains. 

They too would be gone in the morning.

   
 

Vlad woke with the sun. 

He already knew Daniel had left before he could open his eyes. The hand seeking the cold pillow next to him pulled it closer and he buried his nose in the material to have something. 

When he finally opened his eyes, he felt older than before and sat up to stare at the morning sun rising above the city, that had brought him as much happiness as it had caused him pain. 

Daniel was gone, it was that simple. 

No words, no goodbye whispered in his ear or warning. Vlad closed his eyes and recalled the times before this. This was almost crueler than the times he had left Vlad in ruins. 

First at the fallen castle back in England and then in the blood of Paris, as Daniel had vanished into the Ghost Zone in fear of him or himself. 

The old halfa turned his tired head and found that his jacket had been folded on the chair, the pocket with the remote to the shield placed on top of it. He could only nod, admit he had been tricked. 

If it hadn’t been for last night’s memories that is. Daniel might have left him without a word, but the things he had whispered in his ear and the sound of Vlad’s name against his skin, spoke more than silence. 

The key to his dreams had been turned that night and old hopes let out into the light. Daniel had opened himself to him in a way that couldn’t leave no doubt of his love for him. Vlad had held his heart and core in his own hand and felt it beat just for him. 

Daniel had given himself over freely with body and soul. 

Not even the cruel daylight could take that away from him. 

He turned to the bedside table to check his watch in order to estimate how big a head start Daniel had gained, but stopped when his eyes landed on the little black box. 

It was open. The ring gone. 

His eyes moved down to the piece of paper under the box and freed it carefully before opening it. He read it quietly without a sound.

 

 _Dear Vlad._

_When you read this, I will be gone. Again. I know you warned me not to, but I to did warn you not to break the truce and if I can let that go, then so can you. I can’t stop you anyway._

_I’m not the master of you, neither the judge. I just can’t stay._

_You were right, you know. Right about me having a crush on you as a teen and right about me having feelings for you ever since. I just didn’t want to, but that’s not how it works. I know that now._

_It took me years to get to the point where I can admit this to myself. I had to do a lot of things and see other people to admit I couldn’t just shut you out of my head. Proud of me?_

_Then you’re the only one. Me? I’m just tired of this, need to be alone to think – about me and you._

_I still can’t forgive you for what you did to me and people say that I shouldn’t, but that’s the thing about people. They’re not immortal like us. They don’t have eons to ponder and time to heal._

_I have. One day I might just prove that all can be forgiving. But not right now._

_What you did was wrong, Vlad. But I was wrong to deny what I felt for you back then to. Lie to myself and push it to this. I guess we were both in the wrong – you just took it that step further._

_I’m sorry that my dad hurt you like he did when he disfigured you, but we both know he didn’t do it on purpose and just like me, you have to learn how to forgive and move on. You can’t have a future, if you can’t accept your past._

_I promise I’ll try if you do._

_I’m sorry I ruined your castle back then. And killed the servants. And your identity. Never got to tell you this, but now is as good as any. And I believe I was pretty much just a kid back then._ Twenty or not, I had no idea I could do that with my voice. Tell Daisy I say hey, by the way. Maddie to. 

_With this said, I still have hopes that you will one day apologize to me and mean it. I’m not sure if I will forgive you then, but you owe me. It’s the least you can do after all this._

_As for now, I’m leaving to find out something. Remember back in the days when you asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I said I didn’t know? Well, still don’t know, but I think it’s time to find out. My whole life has been one long run from something and as things are, I will continue to run._

_Just for now._

_Humans come and go, Vlad. People die before my eyes and around me. You can be the most powerful halfa in the universe, but that won’t stop your loved ones from leaving you. Life seems so fragile, memory even more so. I still can’t remember what my mother looked like outside that black and white picture I have, only that Jazz took her looks after her._

_Even her face has begun to pale in my memory. I fear I might forget them all one day._

_I think loss has ruined something within me, Vlad. I don’t know what to do about it, never did. I know you want me to be strong and see the world as my playground, because I’m humans’ superior. I know you in your own way only wants the best for me and secure me a world to rule, but we both know that will never be me. I don’t want power, supremacy or glory._

_I just want to find home. To a place where I’m accepted for what I am and no longer have to fear for myself or others. I know you want the same deep down – maybe not accept, but love._

_I can’t tell if I truly love you, Vlad. But I do have feeling for you and maybe some distance will help me sort them out. Maybe both of us should do so._

_As said, if you decide to take over the world, be my guest. I won’t get in your way anymore. I can’t change you and neither can you change me. We are who we are._

_I don’t want you to hunt me anymore. I don’t want to look over my shoulder anymore and see you there. I need this and so do you. I will seek you out when I’m ready._

_You might find it cowardly of me to leave this letter instead of saying this to you face to face. But I needed the head start to make sure you don’t follow me in secret and really – we both know you would never allow me to say all this without interrupting or call me stubborn._

_I need this._

_Just give it time – it seems to be the only thing we’ll always have._

_That and a hotel room in Amity Park._

_Danny._

 

Vlad read the letter again. 

Took in every world and every curve of the old tight cursive handwriting Daniel never had been able to leave behind. In his head, he could hear the other utter the words, imagine the deeps and change of his voice form out every letter in the alphabet. 

If he closed his eyes, he could almost feel him sitting right beside him on the bed. Read over his shoulder and explain to him why he had left him. Explain himself in a way only written words could. 

It was almost ironic how things like this only made his love for Daniel grow. Made him allow this. Yes, he would give him time. Time to find himself and the things he needed from the world. 

Vlad would be patient this time. They had time. 

They always would have.

   
 

The backstage of the concert hall was more of less empty, except from a few technicians packing down and moving the equipment to the tour buses, where the face of Ember McLain stared back with a scowl empowered by heavy makeup. 

Danny walked deeper in between the buses with hands in his pocket and felt his long hair brush his back in calm strokes created by the early morning wind. 

He didn’t know if Vlad had read the letter yet, but the man had a tendency to wake up with the sun if not before and if that was the case today, he would be reading it now. A part of Danny had wanted to stay, but that would never work. 

Not as long Vlad had his plans and Danny his demons to fight. 

He had the feeling he would miss the other, miss this little piece of heaven they had found in Amity and the things that could have been. 

He would always have that thing for Vlad, always have something that pulled him back to the man and keep him asking himself if they couldn’t work something out. 

But that was just a young heart speaking. He was too old for that now. 

“Come to see me of?” an echo from the past asked and Danny turned his head to find Ember packing her things into the storage room of the biggest bus. Probably the one she pretended to sleep and eat in. 

“If I was into dreamy blue-eyed men with tragic backstories, I would probably be swooning by now,” she joked and made a hand gesture to one of the workers to finish the bus and walked over to Danny, “or maybe you came to say cao and ditch this place to? Need a ride?” 

“Actually,” Danny began and rubbed his neck like he had used to as an awkward teen, “I was wondering if you still needed a male singer?”

   
 

 _Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

“I started performing with her shortly after we left Amity,” Danny explained and pulled out a picture of him and Ember performing live in Washington from the little wallet, “I’ve never really been much for a singing carrier, but just as so much else, it was worth a try. I even cut my hair and had it colored in the best crazy 80 style.” 

Nichols accepted the picture and made a somewhat smile, as he recognized Danny next to the singer, despite the heavy make-up and white stripe in his black spiky hair, “you look like a badger.” 

“I know,” Danny replied and rubbed his arm like he was freezing, “I have no record of how many singles or tourneys I went on with her, time didn’t really seem to matter when you were in company of ghosts. They don’t age, they don’t really sleep or eat like normal humans do. She and her band stayed the same and kept living in the same close bubble of fame. The fans kept coming and as long as we produced new singles, covers, albums and hits, the fanbase stayed the same to. The only thing changing was the songs and the view from my window. I must have traveled all over the world, without actually seeing any of it but the stage.” 

The immortal shook his head and rubbed his face like an old man, “I started drinking, a lot. The ghosts in the band didn’t smoke, but cut and sniffed deathblossoms and other herps from the Ghost Zone, and in the end, I did to. I can’t tell you why or how, but me and Ember began screwing around. Fucking and doing crazy things whenever we went. I lost control of my life in the long run, stopped caring about anything.” 

“When did it end?” Nichols asked, having heard stories like this before and knew only few got out of lifestyles like this, with their heads screwed back the right way. 

“I went to a Nasty Burger,” Danny just said and shrugged at the police man’s confusion, “I still had to eat human food, unlike the rest of Ember’s band, being a halfa and all that. I was having a hangover, restless for my next fix and needed to piss after I’d eaten a Nasty supreme like an animal. I slipped in the rest room because I had pissed on the floor like a drunk and hammered my head into the floor.” 

He shook his head with a smile of distaste, “I woke up a little after. My head feeling like it had been hammered in and looked around for the help I had finally realized I needed. There was a tag on the toilet door that caught my eyes and I hold on to it without knowing quite why. It wasn’t one of those graffities, or _‘call this number for sex’_ , or something like that. It was a quote painted on the door with a red pen. It said: _‘Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance - Jean-Paul Sartre’_. Laying in a dirty burger joint, soaked in piss and feeling like I was going to die, I couldn’t help but laugh. I still can’t tell why, but maybe it was all just so ironic in the end. I had ended up here after setting out for some journey to find the meaning of my life, only to find myself hammered in on a disgusting toilet floor, with those words served to my face. I started crying, but it was apparently the wakeup call I needed. I had to stop this pity party I has hosted for myself for who knows how many years. When I returned to the hotel we were staying at, I found Ember in bed with no other than Skulker.” 

“He was spying on you for Vlad?” Nichols asked curiously, but Danny shook his head. 

“Nah, but I thought so to at first, but Skulker hadn’t seen Vlad for years, said the man was out searching for that last page or whatever. Ember had apparently called him in her boredom and taking him back despite the whole betrayal back in Amity. I think Skulker adores her more than his own guns. She wanted me to join a threesome, but I had other plans and left after wishing them luck.” 

Nichols leaned back with a frown, “what year was that?” 

“The mid of the 90’s I think?” Danny guessed and shrugged, “time didn’t really matter to me at that point, I just observed the way it changed the world. I went out to travel like I had done back when I was a school kid. A solo Grand tour if you want. Not to find a meaning with anything or find myself – more…to just live I guess. See stuff and do new things. It was kinda weird to see all those places again so many years later. Most of the stuff in Egypt had either become a warzone or shipped off to the museums of the rest of the world. Greece was now crowded with tourists, Venice was even more crowded and India had become a dump of slum and high technological cities fighting for space.” 

Danny frowned and screwed a bit on the ring on his right hand. A class-ring with an Emerald stone, Nichols noted. 

He had been right at first sight, Danny did have someone to stay faithful to. 

“Seeing how the world changed reminded me of how different I was. Yes, I had still contact with Dani and Valerie, but it didn’t change that they to change for every visit. Sometimes, I still wish I had been born a human, lived a human life and seen the world through ageing eyes. But I have to accept half of me belongs with the dead. I was born on the edge after all.”

   
   
 

 _Year 1997, the Colosseum, Rom, Italy_

_**“I was born on the edge after all.”**_

   
   
 

The dust of what had once been a gift to the people of Rom, swept past the stones of the ageing arena and left a few pecks of sand on Danny’s white boots. 

In the old tourist guide he had read with Tucker and Sam back when they had travelled their first grand tour together, the British bureau had advised tourists to visit Colosseum in the hours of night when the full moon was up. 

That way, they could be sure to get the most romantic experience and be free of other tourists. 

Of course, that meant everyone had come at night and the romantic atmosphere the fliers had promised, was ruined by people playing hide and seek between the pillars and loud business men commenting on the architecture. 

Today, the fliers in bad English simply informed people to visit in the opening hours and behave with respect for the buildings fragility. Something that had proved harder to follow than first expected. 

Alone the length of the line to the door of the colosseum had been too long to phantom and the price was even more so. Danny hadn’t wanted his visit to be a complete disappointment and decided to return after dark, when the tour was closed. 

That’s why he was now sitting quietly in the middle of the night on the ancient stone rows, as the only visitor. Danny had already walked the place for an hour and returned to the rows to enjoy the view. 

Even after so many years, the place was still amazing, but even he couldn’t help but feeling the place had gotten smaller since his last visit in 1914. 

At some point the sand ground of the arena had ben digged up and a hanging platform build in order for visitors to look down at the old corridors, used by gladiators, beasts and slaves beneath the building. 

The iron holding the stones together between the seats once used by romans, had been carved out for ammunition use during one of the wars and the old alters raised in memory of the saints dying for their faith in the arena, removed and whisked off to some museum of some sort. 

Even the green leaves and flowers once filling the gabs, cracks and side of the building had been removed, and Danny couldn’t help but felling sad by the sight of the bared place. 

While Tucker had photographed everything and nothing, Sam had named the names of every flower and claimed in anger that the place was an altar of animal abuse. 

Danny hadn’t really cared about what the place had been used for, as long as he could imagine himself as a gladiator in the middle of the sand. Waving his sword at the rowing audience and getting the emperor’s praise. 

Danny leaned forward to rest his arms on his knees and watched the tree teens, who had been daring enough to sneak into the place after dark. 

The two Italian boys filmed themselves with their flip-phones, while the girl picked up a bunch of stones and pebbles to stuff into a bag. 

Probably to be sold later to tourists or kept as trophies. The oldest of the boys climbed onto the railing of the hanging platform above the hole down to the arenas underground and had the other two gasping, when he pretended to have lost his grip on the railing. 

Danny knew he probably should call an adult or fly down there to stop it before the boy really did lean to far back. 

The kid wasn’t exactly in any risk of falling to his death, as the fall probably would just leave him with a broken limb or two, but there was always the risk of landing wrong on his neck and breaking it. 

But despite the kid’s risky antics, Danny remained seated. 

If any of the kids left this place with a story of a whitehaired phantom hunting this place, other kids would follow them back tomorrow night and do even more stupid things to get a glimpse of a ghost, who would already be leaving Italy by tomorrow morning. 

To where, Danny didn’t know. This had been the last place on his bucket list and now that he didn’t have a sightseen to keep his own mind occupied with the future, he was back to thinking about the past. 

Something he’ll rather not. 

He could always go back to the Ghost Zone. Visit new places and see what the zone had to offer, other than the few places he had already seen. He could even go visit some lairs he had been invited to for ages. 

The Far Frozen was always happy to see him and Dora was always asking him to come see her in her castle and help her hunt down her brother. 

He could even try find Wulf and start at the ghost prison to break out the prisoners just for old times’ sake and have some fun with Walker. 

Maybe even accept the tour of Skulker’s isle, he had been offered and check up on how he and Ember was doing. 

Maybe even try find Ghost Writer and see if his “world history” book was around getting the final touch. 

He doubted it, but the thought of the old ghost, who had once shared a post wagon with him back to England, made Danny’s hand creep up to his chest and feel the key in the chain hanging just beneath the material of his hazmat suit. 

“What are you for? What do you open?” Danny asked it quietly as he lifted it out and ran a thumb across its surface. 

The green key and its skull handle remained mute and Danny wondered how he could have forgotten about the key until now. 

“Looks like a skeleton key,” he muttered like he had done so many times before, unknowing that the pun was the actual truth. 

He had often wondered what it would open and wanted to go into the Ghost Zone to find out, but he had never had time for such a search and looking for a lock matching a key was crazy work. 

What if it matched a box in the human world while he ran around like a fool in the zone? Danny knew it was stupid, but now that he was without a home, friends or obligations, the time to reveal what the key unlocked seemed like the only reasonable thing to do. 

After all. Ghost Writer had told him the key would unlock the answer to all his obsession when he had lost everything else. 

What did he have to lose?

   
 

“Everything,” Vlad stated and searched around the vault to see if any of the box contained the letter addressing the soldier, he had been searching for in months, “I want everything searched down to the last speck of dusk.” 

The Fright Knight nodded, “my liege” and started searching the deeper corridors of the old Schweitzer bank. Vlad ignored him, as he duplicated for the fifth time to spawn another ten helping hands and pulled out the content of the box in front of him. 

The search for the last page of Sojourn’s journal had proved harder than first expected. 

Where Vlad had believed he had found a lead to an old chest of Nazi trophies, taking after the conquest of Berlin in 1945 by an Russian soldier, the box had contained nothing but a lead to a will in which the soldier had given his trophies away to a bastard son in Poland. 

Said bastard had wanted nothing to do with his possible father, due to the beliefs that his mother had been raped by the man. Meaning the son had sold everything at an auction. 

The hole arrangement between buyers and seller had been without paperwork and the buyer of the page almost untraceable, if it hadn’t been for ghost powers. 

Vlad had now wasted years on a hunt through three countries and ended up here in an underground vault, now out of patience and short of a henchman. 

Skulker was still nowhere to find, but Vlad suspected he had gone back to the little nuisance to Miss. McLain. 

If the hunter’s helmet wasn’t capable of keeping him safe from ghostly manipulation waves and vision affecting ghost spells, Vlad could almost believe the hunter hadn’t lost his head because of love and not a spell. 

Something causing some damage to Vlad’s operation. Skulker’s motivation for assisting him had been for a free ticket to the Elsewhereness, but now that Skulker wanted to be with the singer, he had forgotten all about going to heaven to find peace. 

But who was then going to be the first to go through the gate now and prove Vlad’s claims about it being the actual gate to the Elsewhereness? 

Vlad didn’t know, doubted the Fright Knight would do it and gritted his teeth. Pushed away the bundles of money and old jewelries which value was lost on him. Threw the box to the ground and continued to the next. 

Something clicked and Vlad frowned as an alarm vent of. This wasn’t on the plan of the vault or in the underground banker’s memory… 

One of his duplicates suddenly warned him that they had company and he send to invisible duplicates to take care of the human guards. 

“I swear,” he uttered, “this better be the place.”

   
 

“This is diffidently the place,” Danny whistled and took in the sight of the ghostly building floating in front of him. 

The classical roman architecture and pillar front could only mean this was a building of knowledge and the sign above it clearly stated _“library”_ , meaning he couldn’t have gone wrong. 

This was Ghost Writer’s lair. 

Being the upstanding citizen Danny had always worn himself to be – or tried to be – he flied up to the door and knocked politely. When nothing happened, he dropped the formalities walked right in.

   
 

“Shouldn’t have done that,” the hunter smirked in heavy English and fired at Plasmius. 

Vlad rolled his eyes back in the vault and kept searching for the right box, as his duplicate kept the supernatural hunter occupied. 

Who would have thought one of these boxes was fortuned enough to contain a valuable hunter collection of books and artifacts? – and said box had an alarm? What the _fudge_ was the odds? 

Vlad couldn’t exactly care, having poked the world-wide hunter society before and made his way out without a sweat. 

Lucky for him, the page seemed to have gone unnoticed by these hunters when they registered the box, or else Vlad could lively imagine the extra expenses of coming here and discover that the page had been brought to some hunter centers headquarter years back. 

He would have been lost without his own hunter to follow such trail, but lucky for him, these hunters were just as obvious, as they were bad English speaking. 

He would deal with Skulker and serve him his rightful punishment when he took over the world. 

Finding that the pull of the page had gotten closer, Vlad left the current box to phase his hand into the next. Feeling the answer just around the corner.

   
 

“Hallo?” Danny called as he rounded the corner. 

As no ghost of book answered him, Danny floated around the tall stacks of books and shelves without a purpose. Pulled one or two out to read without getting any closer to finding the old writer in his search. 

“It’s just me, Danny!” he tried again, hoping Ghost Writer might just be hiding or hating unwanted visitors, “we shared a wagon once back in 1915…or I think. Remember? I have this key you gave me, before you vanished really dramatically. Wanna tell me what it opens?” 

The ghost didn’t appear and Danny scowled before floating up the grand stairs and into what he hoped was some sorta inner home, or more personal part of the library, where Ghost Writer could have left some clues of his whereabouts. 

As he opened the doors, he found that he had entered what seems to be a private library. More exclusive books and closed showcases with open books inside, decorated the room and a naked spot showed marks after some sort of piano, or maybe even a round keyboard. 

Danny scratched his head by the sight of the last one, but shrugged and looked around. 

“Hey, If ya not home, I can just wait around?” Danny continued, more speaking to himself now than any ghost, to make himself feel less like a loser walking in on another person’s private poverty, “read a book maybe? Do you have any new bestseller around? A Stephen King maybe?” 

Danny clicked his tongue as he looked around and tried not to mess anything up while snoop around. 

Most of the books on display seemed to be in another language and others made even before English was invented at all. 

Danny recognized some stuff written in ghost language and tried speaking it out loud, making sounds like a haunting spirit, while actually saying stuff like “I like cheese” and “hella fine”. 

He reached what looked like a working desk and read the front of one of the books to see it’s topic without much interest. He would almost have missed it, if he hadn’t taken a second to look at it twice because of the author. 

He stepped closer and read the title in a confused voice, “The World History. A book with spirit perspective. Vol. 1. By Ghost Writer.” 

He tried to understand what that meant and sank a lump stuck in his throat. He opened it with careful hands, found that it had all been written in ghost language and turned the pages. 

The book was finished, had been for a long time. _Vol. 1_? 

Did this mean Ghost Writer was out making more than one? 

The book was heavy, but he lifted it nonetheless and held his breath when a piece of paper fell out the book and landed on the floor. Danny bite his lip, not sure what to expect by now and picked it up from the cold floor. 

Even without certainty, something told him that this was for him and turned it around to read the swirling letters in green ink. 

_Look in the safe._

   
 

“Don’t touch that safe!” the female hunter screamed and Vlad snorted by her desperate attempts to get to him and opened the box without regret. 

Having already phased his hand through it a few seconds before to feel if there anything paper like in there and found the wire connected to a bomb. 

Unlike a human, Vlad was in no danger and simply smirked as he pulled the trap, before turning intangible along with his duplicates. 

The explosion sent a burning wall of destruction through the room, then out the door of the open vault and continued down the corridor, killing all mortals in the vault and filled the underground bank with smothering smoke. 

Vlad lifted the cape from his eyes and turned back solid to see the still crisp remains of the hunters littering the floor around him. 

“Fright Knight,” he coughed with a touch of his earphone and heard the faint sound of shooting down the blackened corridor, “keep them occupied while I take the page.” 

“ _As you command, my liege,_ ” the ghost responded and from the screams and curses to make of, currently cleaving someone with his Soul Shredder. 

Sending them to his dimension of fright. 

Vlad had heard enough and with the faint calls for mercy and glimpse of gunfire behind him outside the door from down the corridor, he walked up to the old box and phased his hand into its steal velvet container. 

Feeling around till he found the pulse of something ghostly and lifted it out with great care. 

The green ominous page glowed ominous between his glove-clad hands and Vlad took a second to congratulate himself on being the first entity to ever collection the entire journal of the ghost legend Sojourn. 

Not knowing what to expect, he began reading the pages content and gave the illustration a close inspection, as he read the title of the page. 

“The Master of Time,” he muttered, “also known as ‘Clockwork’ or ‘The keeper of time’”.

   
 

Danny tried as gently as possible to remove the picture of some ancient ghost philosopher on the wall behind the desk and found the front of a safe behind it as he had expected. 

He felt a short sense of foreboding, as he pulled out the skeleton key from his suite and looked from the safe to the key, tried to figure if it was matching or not. 

Deciding that there was only one way to find out, Danny pulled the key from the old chain, snapping the old silver and let it fall to the floor. 

The skull handle seemed to laugh at him, but Danny wasn’t going to let himself get cold feet and placed the key in the lock. Turned it with a smooth motion. 

The sound of mechanism activating and the feeling of the key turning in his hand, made Danny exhale slowly and he took a little step back as the little door opened with a groan. 

Revealing its content, consisting a simple envelope and – surprisingly – a new silver chain similar to the one he’d just broken. 

He frowned, confused and ignored the chain for now in favor of the envelope. Ghost Writer’s neat handwriting filling the blank backside. 

_For the ghost-boy._

   
 

Without taking much care of the commotion getting near his corridor, Vlad called forth one of his duplicates and pulled out the rest of the journal from the suitcase in its hand. 

Handed the glowing papers to a second and had the first hold the suitcase in order for him to use it as a writing underlay, as he began to check the page for hidden keys and compared it to the rest of the pages. 

Placing the new page on top of the first, he found several new keys pope up in the texts and wrote down with deep concentration. 

The sound of shooting moved past his corridor and he waved four duplicates of to chase the surviving hunters down. 

Finally, he had the key combination he needed to finish the last piece of his deciphered instruction, followed the translation with a frown – and ripped out the first and last page of the journal. Both of them blank. 

Vlad pursed his lips in concentration, as he reread the deciphered instruction one more time and then cursed before he curled the two pages up into balls and held them both in one hand. 

He made a small prayer that he hadn’t translated it wrong and clenched his teeth. 

A smell of smoke started filling the corridor and he watch with narrowed brows, as the paper burst into flames in his hand. 

Unlike the fools who had tried throughout the ages to destroy the pages by burning them with earthly fire, he had long since deciphered the needed keys and cracked the code. 

Only a firecored ghost’s flames could burn the pages and in order to truly ignite the pages, it would cost far more energy, than most ghosts out there could generate alone for years. 

But Vlad wasn’t most ghosts and burned the two paper balls with a steadfast flame, closed his fist and added energy to his hand, till there was nothing left but ashes. 

Carefully, the duplicates beside him handed him a the frontpage of the journal and they watched, as he smeared the black ashes on the back of it. 

As they waited, golden letters started to write themselves on the green page.

   
 

Danny stared at the page, not sure what he had been expected when he opened the envelope, but definitely not this. 

This shit was straight out of a mystery novel.

 

 _Dear Phantom – or ‘Danny’, as you prefer._

_You and I have never meet in this timeline and as far as I can predict, there is very low chances that we ever will, as long as you don’t take an evil path and I don’t intervene with your future._

_Despite this, I am today writing this letter to you, as a service I and other alternate dimension Time keepers now offers the Danny Phantoms in our private collection of timelines. I have helped other Phantoms just as yourself and to help you to better understand your existence in this particular timeline, I am now writing to you._

_As you read this, your timeline’s Vlad Plasmius will be reading these exact same words in his deciphered journal and know what you know. Making the circle complete._

_Do with this information as you please._

_Ps. Remember what you saw in the Far Frozen shamans’ vision._

_The Master of Time, Clockwork._

   
 

Both halfas began reading each piece of paper, whenever page of Sojourn’s journal, or a copy written by the Master of time and both of them sat down, as the words began tearing down the foundation of their existence. 

Danny sank down to the floor in the library in the world of the undead, while Vlad leaned up against a stone wall in the underground vault of the living world. 

None of them knowing what to believe.

 

 

 _When I finish this journal, it will be as my final act._

_Despite knowing that I already in my lifetime has become a legend, there is very few still alive or able to remember, who knows the truth of my origins. When I write this secret passage in my journal, it is with the hope that it will enlighten the two only existing halfas of their own origins when the time comes._

_The beginning of the halfa – this godlike species amongst humans and ghosts, began with a meeting between a human and a spirit. A living being of the human world and an undead of the Ghost Zone._

_Despite their differences and unlike, the two of them grew found of one another and formed a bond of love. Although it is known that the living and dead cannot create life, the ghost turned out to be an exception, as he was one of the ghost of Life, guardian ghost of the circle of Ancients;_

_The Ghost of Time, Death, Wisdom, Destiny and Life._

_The ghost of Life went against his sibling’s warnings and granted the human her wish of an offspring between them. And as the child grew, he came to live on the bridge of the living and death._

_Never to belong in either worlds or fulfil his propose as either forms._

_Without the relief of an earthly death, or release as fulfillment of his ghostly obsession, the halfa went out to find his purpose and meaning with this life his parents had bestowed him in their reunion._

_For many eons, he came to know all that is human and ghostly, and served the two worlds as the medium between them in peace and war. But with age and timeless existence, the halfa came to understand that he could never hope to reunite the living and death, or be at peace with the raging powers within him, that always threatened to corrupt him with madness._

_As the guardian of the Elsewhereness and Unworld, the halfa knew both world would always be at need with his help to bring the dead souls to their gates and prevent them from getting lost in the living world with all its temptations and old lives._

_The Ancients to knew this and approached him to end his suffering, with the promise of securing a new guardian of the two gates. By dissolving his form in the Ghost Zone, they set free his core parts to roam free in the world of the dead, until the day the living would cross its barrier again._

__It was their prophecy that two humans would one day tear a portal from the living to the world of the death and become chosen as the next guardians._ _

_It is their gift to me that my core parts will one day find a new host to serve and help them grow into their fate, as a peacemaker and bridge between the two worlds. As an entity, I will never find peace with my powers or solitude from the opposite cores that rages in my chest. But as two, they can find solace in the other’s company._

_It is my hope and the ancient’s word, that my legacy will pass on to the two humans, who is noble enough to survive the venture into the world of the dead. As two, may they find a balance that will lead them both to work as one._

_One as the judge of the Unworld. One as the protector of the Elsewhereness._

_This is my fate. This is the prophecy of the halfas._

_Sojourn._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope I made some ends meet there :D  
> Still more to come in the last chapter and hopefully a satisfying end to this mess  
> (the reason i'm writing my author note down here, is because there's no more space in the beginning note - to many "previously in the fic" i want you to remeber for this to be tied up completly)  
> Oh well - I got one last thing to say before the last chapter though  
> I HAVE MADE A MISTAKE!!!!!!  
> It have come to my attention that throughout these 50 chapters, I haven't once described what Nichols look like.  
> Wich is crazy! I was going to make him look in a mirror in chapter 51 and then realised I have absolutely no description of his appearance whatsoever. All i have written is that he is in his 45-50, has rough hands and needs to shave.  
> WHAT THE FUCK!!!! he's a major character - how can I have allowed him to go through a 51 chapter fic without a face!?  
> Worst thing is... I don't even know how he looks in my own mind - I have absolutely no idea, when I think of him i just think "american policeman" - what the hell!?  
> THAT'S WHY I NEED YOR HELP!!!  
> if you have a clear idea or imaginary picture of what Nichols look like, please write it in the comments and I will write it in the last chapter  
> Thank you!!!!
> 
> * * *


	51. Nichols’ final toast to good life and health

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously in the fic:
> 
> Danny's first friend was a ghost  
>  _Youngblood came up beside him and looked anxiously around, "moving again?"_  
>  _"We will be staying in an estate in northern Yorkshire," Danny replied and handed him the box of candy he had used months to collect, "are you going?"_  
>  _Youngblood opened eagerly the box and put a handful of candy in his mouth, "that depends – can you can play hide-and-seek in northern Yorkshire?”_  
>  _That Danny knew nothing about, but he knew they were going by train and Youngblood liked to play train conductor, which was a start. He heard his mom call and ran down to the now packed car, A silver-haired man with a black jacket and red scarf, suddenly turned and looked up at Youngblood and the ghost stopped dead in track._
> 
> And Vlad made a promish  
>  _Danny pushed his hands away with biting words, “my love was never yours to keep and even if you tried for hundred years, it wouldn’t change a thing.”_  
>  _Vlad leaned in with lidded eyes and a knowing smile, his scent and core heat engulfing Danny to the point of the sweet unbearable, “then hundred years it is.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And other's hopes was crushed  
>  _Frostbite watched him with excitement, “me and my people have waited a long time for this day to come and followed your doings and heroic acts with great interest. Especially the stories of all the ghost you’ve helped to cross over. It is our hope that you might help one of our eldest. She has wished to be helped beyond this world to find peace for decades and waited with outmost patience for you to return to us.”_  
>  _Danny’s head snapped to the yeti and he backed out of his grip instantly, “what!? – no, no you don’t understand. I kill ghosts when I do that – my cross over powers lead to nothing! To…to…”_  
>  _ **The Unworld**. Memories of the place came back like a crushing wave. Filling him with terror, the darkness, the rot, hands all around him. Reaching to hurt, grabbing to kill, wanting to pull him back down, make him share their misery. Make him one of them, them, them, the dead, the hateful, the sorrowful, the hopeless, the dead, dead, dead, dark._
> 
> But the yeties still helped him  
>  _The shaman nodded solemnly, "this mirror have been passed down from shaman, to shaman for generations. It was brought to us by my grand, grand, grandfather, who was handed the artifact by the ancient being called Clockwork. A gift from the Master of Time himself._  
>  _Danny turned the screen over in his hand, "he just gave it to you guys?"_  
>  _“Oh no, he threw it out the window of his tower one day and hit my grand, grand, grandfather in the head. Yelling something about a Disasteroid being a bad way to end a good show. The shaman took it as a blessing and ran off with it. Most of our magical artifact it achieved that way.”_
> 
> Danny might forgive, but he dosen't forget  
>  _“I don’t expect you to apologize for what you did to me back then,” Danny assured him with a hallow voice and an old shadow of emptiness filled his blue eyes, “I forgave you years ago and I don’t regret it, but…it would just make so much more **sense** if you did.”_  
>  _Vlad went on his knee before the halfa and took his hands, “Daniel I’m –“_  
>  _“Don’t,” Danny warned and brought the other to silence, “don’t patronize me. You’re weren’t sorry then and you’re not sorry now. I know you’re not. I know that now. You can tell me when you are and not a second before. I’m tired of your lies – do you understand?”_
> 
> And a crime was commited  
>  _ **“That’s the thing, the guests just went in there and took a seat before the bouncer could stop him. Probably thinking it was just another table open for playing. Anderson was going to make the bouncer take the guest away, but then suddenly changes his mind out of nowhere and even pull out a seat for the man himself. The sound on the footage is bad, we have some of the boys in the lab trying to improve it at the moment, but overall, the guest wins by laying down a perfect 21 and takes the chips before leaving.”**_  
>  _“And then Dallas shot Anderson,” Nichols finished and the tree officers at the screen nodded._  
>  _ **“They tried to keep the body hidden from us to make us focus on getting their money back from the guest. The dealer finally cracked an hour ago and spilled the details in exchange for witness protection. Anderson claims that he didn’t kill Dallas on purpose, that he doesn’t remember anything between the guest arriving and leaving again. Chief wants all your arrested let free, we got all we need at the casino.”**_
> 
> And at last, Danny found the truth  
>  _ **It is my hope and the ancient’s word, that my legacy will pass on to the two humans, who is noble enough to survive the venture into the world of the dead. As two, may they find a balance that will lead them both to work as one.**_  
>  _ **One as the judge of the Unworld. One as the protector of the Elsewhereness.**_  
>  _ **This is my fate. This is the prophecy of the halfas.**_
> 
>  __  
>  **Sojourn.**  
>     
> The story is almost at it's end  
>  _Nichols could feel he was getting impatient and perhaps a little curious to, "let’s make a deal then, you tell me your little story and I let you leave if its good."_  
>  _Danny looked at him and just as Nichols had gotten enough of waiting and moved to leave him for another cup of coffee, and let him simmer in its own shit, the boy finally opened his mouth, "my story begins and ends the day I died in my mother womb, the year of the lord, 1900..."_
> 
> * * *
> 
> in this chapter, danny sings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYt4bfogptA
> 
> then he'll sing the song that named this fic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDsuR22GQPQ
> 
> Hope this chapter will be everything you've hoped for :)
> 
> * * *

Before you get the final chapter... 

First a special thanks to Goten_Son_Ten and Adon Hatzil for pretty much being there for me in every chapter with your amasing comment and encourament. And a great thank you to acid_and_oil for likewise being there and then recogment my fic on Tumblr of all things - if it hand't been for you, I would still have the old titel of this fic and probbaly scarying away more possible readers. 

A great thank you to nimf, who made my day by asking if my story could be translated to a russian fanfic site - you still have my absolut permission. 

I like to thank QueenMargosha as well, for being a great critic and asking the deeper quistions, and making me put in the extra work to make the fic more realistic (if a fic can be such a thing :) ) 

And to VidelVixen, Mar hatzil, PrincepPerdut, anon, Jinx, Baroness_of_Bara, Darkangeldt, rere, ImmortalVirtue, Fery, secretadmirer, Everder, Kataury, Nightshade, Red+Feather and to all you who wanted to remain anonymous, or left a Kudos - I'll like to let you all know that without your comments, kudos and kind words, this fic would never had been finished. 

Readers like you is what makes fics like this fun to write. Every writer should know that their work is loved and valid, no matter how small the group of readers is. It's because of you that I belive I can finish my own original stories on day and become an author - but for now I think I stick to the fanfics. Especially this ship. 

51 chapters is pretty much a book in itself and I couldn't have done this without you guys. Every comment made my day - you guys are inspiring and just simply amazing. I'm going to miss you all so much. Thank you for everything. (if Mar hatzil and Adon Hatzil is the same - I'm super sorry for not realising and if you're two different readers, I'm so imbarresed for think you might be the same ( ・ω・) )

Hope you enjoy

 

\- TheLonesomeWriter

* * *

   
 

 _Year 2015, Highgate Cemetery, London, England_

Just as he remembered it, the rain of London was heavy. 

The rain falling on the tombs and hanging heads of the flowers placed around the graves, seemed to have stayed the same, even though the rest of the city had changed from tradition to that of modernity. 

The feeling of the heavy drops almost made him believe nothing had changed, if it hadn’t been for all the new names and new dates of diseased humans surrounding him. 

Despite the new additions to the garden of the lost, old names and some of the crumbling mausoleums from his own youth still stood like it was yesterday, but one was painfully missing from the picture. 

His family’s. His mother and father’s grave. 

Danny knew it was stupid to stare at the empty spot, but couldn’t help it. Something about this completely destruction of the last testimony of his old bloodline, saddened him in a way that almost seemed liberating. 

If Danny had been aware of the fact that living family members had to keep on paying for grave spots in order to keep them untouched, he would have paid the money of course – but more out of debt than actual care. 

Paying for the maintenance of your dead family didn’t bring them back, it only secured their rotting bodies a pretty place to dissolve in. 

He ignored the rain, as it soaked the last dry layer of his cloths and pulled the drenched jacket closer around himself. Wondered if the authority of the cemetery had just burned the old coffins in the lost mausoleum, or dumped them into the empty foundation afterwards. 

Should he phase a hand though the dirt to see if he could find a corner of molded wood or bone? 

It wasn’t going to bring them back or help him grieve – meaning he wouldn’t. He had only come here out of old habits and in simple wonder if he was going to feel anything from coming here. 

Now that he knew he wasn’t going to cry or mourn anytime soon, he found the nearest tree to sit under and turned intangible for a second to get the water out of his cloths. 

The cold night wind apparently wanted to bid him its own charming welcome back to his home land and swept through his wild hair with its cold fingers. Danny had long since become immune to cold and ignored it without as much as a shudder. 

Pushed the inky tresses back in place and wondered if he should give up the task of cutting it himself to someone professional. Last time he had seen Valerie, she had pretty much insisted on it and he had promised not to use a scissor on himself anymore. 

Not that he had kept that promise, but perhaps it was time he did as the lady said. And speaking of following orders… 

He looked down himself calmly, as he phased a hand into the skin of his midsection and cleared his throat, as he pulled out an air sealed plastic pocket. 

The wallet inside groaned a bit by his touch, as only crisp old leather had a habit to do and Danny flipped though the wallet, until he found the old letter from the mysterious “Master of Time”. 

It would be a lie to say he hadn’t been trying to track down Ghost Writer to get an explanation, but as he hadn’t been able to find as much as mention of his whereabouts, he had mostly given up by now and just accepted that some all-knowing ghost god had taken the time (pun intended) to write him this letter. 

Apparently a “Danny Phantom bonus” he gave to all little halfas no matter timeline or dimension. Danny signed by the stupidity of it all and wondered if Vlad was having more luck adapting to the knowledge of being one of Sojourn’s ‘chosen ones’. 

Personally, Danny didn’t know what to think of it. Given that Danny knew what it was like to be a troubled immortal, he could understand why Sojourn would have wanted to end his own existence and push his responsibilities over on someone else’s plate. 

Danny had been fighting for years to get his own ice core under control – but having a core of both fire and ice? Sojourn must have had the worst puberty ever. 

But what Danny couldn’t help to be a bit pissed about, was the fact that it had been him and Vlad to be the chosen ones. 

Yes, his parents and Vlad had been the first humans to tear a hole into the Ghost Zone, and yes, Sojourn’s core particles had been drawn to it and fused into two humans as they should – but why Danny!? 

Why not his father? Or better, his mother? 

If Maddie had gotten the ice core, she would have become immortal instead of spending her last days heaving for air on a stuffed mattress in a golden room. Danny had just been an infant – an unborn thing with the least chances of survival. 

Why him? Vlad had been standing right in front of the portal, it made sense for him to be chosen first, but then Danny? Had the part of the core chosen him out of interest or was it randomly selection? 

Did this mean Phantom was more Sojourn than Danny? Had Phantom been his own ghost in the Ghost Zone, before fusing with him? Or just a raw power without mind seeking a fitting host? 

Danny shook his head, knew these questions would never be answered. There were only two questions left for him to have answered. 

And one could only be found at the end of the road, the ice yeti shaman had laid out for him. He opened the letter again to read Clockwork’s note about remember what he had seen in the future screen, he had once thrown after a yeti and he recalled the old vision again. 

_A picture of Jazz hanging in a house in a town called Amity Park._

_A vault in a library in the Ghost Zone._

_A child’s pirate hat on top of an office building in London._

_A piano inside a casino in Seattle._

As a trace of breadcrumbs, he had already followed the first two without his own knowledge and based on that, he had come to believe he would have come across the rest even if Clockwork hadn’t reminded him. 

With that small comfort in mind, Danny packed his letter and wallet safely back inside his human body and transformed to seek out an old address in the night. 

The rumors of a poltergeist haunting an office building in the old part of London, had come across the halfa a few days before and after having listened in on some lawyers talking over coffee in a café, Danny had the feeling he could already tell who the ghost was. 

And he wasn’t disappointed. 

“Avast ye! Scurvey dogs!” the ghost yelled with a fake pirate accent, as he phased thought the offices of the building, sending papers and equipment flying into the air, without a care for the extra work it would cause the secretaries and cleanup crew in the morning. 

“Prepare to be boarded by Captain Youngblood and his skeleton crew,” the little ghost boy continued and swung his sword with glee, as he pretended to be a captain giving a speech on top of one of the printer machines, “you there! Surrender and play with me!” 

The unfortunate nightshift janitor, who had come rushing by the sound of commotion, paled by the sight of the floating child and ran as fast as he could, leaving his cleaning paraphernalia behind. 

Youngblood grinned by the sight of new toys and made the bottles and mops float around the air, coating everything in soap water and bleach. 

“Hey, isn't it past your bedtime, kid?” Danny asked as he turned visible and stepped into the office. 

The little ghost turned around to face him with a sour expression. 

“Don't call me kid! I'm mature beyond me years,” Youngblood insisted and stuck his tongue out at him. 

Danny couldn’t help but smile and that seemed to confuse the ghost a bit. Not used to human adults finding his antics something to smile at. 

“It’s a nice boat you got there,” Danny continued and nodded towards the overturned printer and tables stacked together to form something alike a ship – at least in a child’s imagination, “how many cannons, captain?” 

Youngblood looked from his imaginary ship to Danny and back again, before he adjusted his pirate hat and tried to seem more important, “more than hundred, at least – oh, and a harpoon on the side.” 

Danny just nodded, “very impressing, captain.” 

“Hey, mister, want to play pirates?” Youngblood asked hopefully, sensing that he and Danny seemed to understand each other. 

“Only if we can play train conductor afterwards,” Danny insisted and took of his jacket, and used his scarf as a bandana, “and then I get to play the conductor.” 

“No fair!” Youngblood whined, “I’m always the conductor!” 

“I know,” Danny retorted and set off from the floor to float on top of the makeshift pirate ship and sat down beside Youngblood, “but last time I saw you, you promised me I could lead the train for once.” 

The little ghost blinked in confusion at first, but when Danny pulled out an old confections box from his pocket, much like the one he had once used to hide under his mattress as a child. Youngblood widened his eyes and looked up at Danny with recognition. 

“Hey, Youngblood,” Danny said quietly with a little smile. 

“Danny?” the child asked slowly and gave him a look over with a little frown, “but…you’re old.” 

“I grew up,” Danny just explained and shrugged, “humans do that. Even half humans like me.” 

Youngblood looked down at his feet with an expression mixed by childish sadness and disappointment. 

Danny had almost believed this to be a lost cause, when Youngblood suddenly looked up with a questioning face filled with freckles, “you mean…like Wendy? The girl in Per Pan?” 

Danny nodded, seeing what he meant, “yeah, I’m like Wendy. That makes you Per Pan, by the way.” 

“Really?” Youngblood asked happily and changed his own cloths to that of green, “then we have to stop captain hook, before he takes over Neverland.” 

Danny gasped dramatically, “but, Peter – we’re already on his ship! We have been captured!” 

That was all it took to make Youngblood forget the time span of 105 years they had been apart and the fact that Danny had changed from the child, the ghost had once called his best friend – and into a stranger with a faint shadow of his old self. 

Even Danny found that he could forget for a time and pretend to be ten years old again, as Youngblood got deeper into his world of pretend and made Danny see the world with the eyes of an innocent child again. 

At the end of the night, they had already saved Neverland from Hook twice, build and driven the world’s next wonder train into three oceans and dug up the most cursed Aztec treasures the haunted seas had to offer. 

Now building a spaceship of paper and duct tape on the building’s rooftop, both of them was ready to travel to the moon and shot into the air with screams of glee. 

Youngblood flew around him in his little spacesuit, lost in the game and widened his eyes, as Danny used his powers to cover the roof in ice. Assuring him that they now had landed on the surface on the cold moon. 

“A small step for man, a big step for mankind,” Youngblood proclaimed as he pretended to walk slowly across the ice and Danny pretended to take pictures, as the kid planted his flag made of a broom and Danny’s jacket. 

“I now declare this Neverland!” the child ghost declared proudly and had Danny laughing. 

That’s just inviting space pirates to invade us, Youngblood.” 

“You can be that!?” 

That just made Danny laugh harder and dropped down on the edge of the roof to sit down. Youngblood followed him and sat down beside him. 

Stared in wonder at the floating ecto-bubbles of green and blue light Danny had created around them to look like small planets. 

Danny watched him with somewhat old eyes, as the kid popped one of the bubbles when it flew close to his nose and giggled at the popping sound. 

“Do you remember the first house we met in?” Danny asked quietly and the child looked up with a smile filled with fond memories. 

“Of course! We used to play in the garden there – remember the big garden? Oh, and the huge mansion after that? That place had the best hide-and-seek ground. You could never find me.” 

“And then you moved with me to this place,” Danny retorted and looked down at the office building and the street so unlike the neighborhood of the old Victorian houses he had once known, “this used to be the place Miss. Jones had her house. Remember her?” 

“The strict fat lady, who hid the cookies for herself until they turned dusty and gross?” 

Danny nodded, recalling the woman and her antics, “yeah, she was kinda bitch. I’m sorry you had to end up here alone. Vlad should have let you come along when we moved to his castle.” 

By the mention of the other halfa, the ghost child made an expression of worry and looked around in fear, “is he around? I don’t want to fight a ghost like him, he’s scary.” 

Danny just patted his little back with an unreadable expression, expression millions of adults before him had worn in the company of a child asking difficult questions, “no, he’s not around. Don’t worry about him, you’re safe with me.” 

That seemed to comfort the child and he moved to sit closer to Danny, something that made Danny recall his own childhood and how scared of Vlad he had been back then. 

“Youngblood, do you remember your human life?” 

The ghost shook his head, an answer Danny had expected – very few ghosts if any ever did, “then I have something for you.” 

Youngblood watched with open curiosity, as Danny dug out a folder of papers from his jacket and the ghost eat a piece of candy from the box Danny had brought him earlier. Munched on the confection as Danny pointed to the first paper. 

“This report is the medical file the doctors of Derbyshire Royal Infirmary made of a boy named James many years ago,” Danny began and had the ghost frown a bit, “he was a very sick child, who spend most of the time in bed with different diseases and spontaneous outbreaks of asthma. Something that kept him in bed most of his life and prevented him from playing with the few other kids at the hospital.” 

Danny flipped to one of the next pages and continued, “the hospital he lived in was first build in 1810 and had him as a resident patient since 1880, until in 1890 when the building suffered a typhoid outbreak. Something people blamed on the building’s design. Most of the patients was infected and James was one of the children who died as the first, followed shortly by his parents, who had visited him every day.” 

Youngblood’s frown had only deepened and Danny pulled out the report of the closed hospital’s cemetery register with a heavy heart. 

“James was ten years when he died, he was buried in the hospital cemetery, a graveyard close to the village of Derbyshire, where me and my family stayed shortly in 1907…and I met you.” 

Youngblood took the report with a confused expression and looked closely at the only existing photo of the dead boy. A sickly pale child, with combed blond hair and light freckles. 

“James Youngblood,” Danny read quietly, “ten years. 1890.” 

The ghost didn’t reply, just stared at the black and white photo for what felt like hours, before lowering it to his lap. 

“I just wanted to play,” Youngblood uttered with an empty voice and Danny laid an arm around him. 

“I know. That’s your obsession after all. You were sick most of your life, never got to be a child. The sickness kept you from leaving your bed and join the other’s in the sun. I guess that’s why you went out to find me, you never had anyone to play with in your human life.” 

Tears began to fall from Youngblood’s cheeks and quiet sobs shook his little body with grieve. Danny soothed him the best he could and rocked the child in his arms. Hating himself for doing this, but knew he had to. 

“I want my mom,” Youngblood suddenly said and dried his nose with his sleeve, his voice growing unsure, “but I don’t know who she is or what she looks like.” 

“I can’t bring her or your father back,” Danny admitted and looked down at his childhood friend with a sad expression, “but I can help you cross over.” 

“To were?” Youngblood asked, curiosity and hostility filling his voice. 

“I don’t know,” Danny admitted, “but how about we find out together?” 

Youngblood still seemed a bit unsure, but then nodded and held on to Danny’s hand, with no intention of letting go of it. Danny offered him an encouraging smile and did as he done so many times before. 

He opened a portal. 

The rift in the air widened slowly as the white light that made up its color, filled the night with its soft glow. It wasn’t a portal as such, or a hole of glorious light. 

More a gentle rift in the material of the world, that didn’t reveal its content, but didn’t alarm its beholder either. Danny had for a long time promised himself never to open it again, not knowing what was on the opposite side, fearing the worst. 

But today he felt no fear. Only the hope that his last question would be answered today. 

“Don’t be scared, I’ll follow you all the way,” Danny promised and had Youngblood make an offensive scowl. 

“I’m not scared! Look! I’m the one leading you, your twit.” 

Danny snorted at that, “whatever you say, captain snotnose.” 

He was still smiling, as the stubborn child insisting on leading him though the portal and in Danny’s quiet mind he wondered if this was what it was like to have a little brother. 

A sting of fear gripped him, as they passed the white surface of the portal and he kept his eyes shut for a second, before feeling something wash of him the second he took the step in. 

If fear felt like having something ripped from your body and leave you naked, this feeling was its complete opposite. Danny had long since forgotten what it meant to feel cold, but in this moment, he knew he had been freezing all his life. 

The warmth that filled him made him sigh in comfort and the serenity that seemed to nurse his mind, made him forget all his troubles in life. The gentle atmosphere and trust of his surroundings made him open his eyes to find himself in an open space. 

A place of gentle light that seemed to stream from all around him, even himself. 

When he looked down at his hand to find it empty, he didn’t fear as much as he felt surprise and look around for the little ghost child. 

_Danny._

He turned his head to find a child floating in the middle of the space. He was a young boy with soft fair hair and freckles that framed his dimples. As he smiled at Danny and waved to either greet him or bid farewell, Danny felt complete. 

The halfa waved back and found that other misty figures had assembled behind the boy. They were to distant and blurred to be recognized, but he already knew them by heart and returned their simple greeting. 

He had send them here after all. 

The many years of fear of sending them to the Unworld was washed of his soul to leave it clean of doubt and trustful voices soothed his heart to never distrust his own powers again. 

Many of them asked him to stay, to be part of the peace he had found in this world and never return through it gates again, but Danny easily shook them of him. 

He was no ghost after all. He could see this was paradise, but it had no power over him. He was the key to its gates after all, he was guardian of this dimension. He was to protect it, not enjoy it. 

His human half had to go back to the living. 

That was his curse after all. 

At his return to the rainy cold roof that was the world of the living, Danny couldn’t help but sigh at the burdens that returned to him the second he had left the rift. Doubts and old scars reformed, leaving him with the feeling of loss and insecurities again. 

But it was okay, he thought, as he walked across the roof and picked up the abandoned pirate hat from the ground and dusted it off with a fond smile. 

He now knew the answer to his last question that had haunted him for most of his life. 

He now knew the where he led ghosts to rest. 

He knew what his purpose in life was.

   
   
 

 _Year 2017, a police station, Seattle, Washington, USA._

Nichols blinked in realization, “so that means –” 

“That Vlad is the key to the gate of the Unworld and I’m the key to the Elsewhereness,” Danny finished for him without much enthusiasm and sighed, “I don’t know which one of us had been most bummed out. Me or Vlad.” 

Nichols groaned as he rubbed his head and gave the guardian of ghost heaven a dry look, “well I can see why Vlad would be crushed to know he had lost world domination just by losing you – but what is your deal? Now you can help ghosts get to the other side without fear. That’s great.” 

Danny snorted, “yeah, if only ghosts trusted my word that is. The rumors about one halfa sending ghost to the Unworld, doesn’t exactly help on the other claiming he can open the gate to the Elsewhereness, when there’s no proof of it. Those who have heard or seen Vlad teleport ghosts away to never be seen again, doesn’t exactly trust my word as a halfa. The only ones who do, is the yetis of the Far Frozen. They have always known and thought I did so to. I was almost embarrassing to go back there and help the old yetis cross over after having denied them it for years.” 

The old cop could see what he meant and hummed, “alright I see your point. So you returned to the Far Frozen?” 

“Only temporary,” Danny explained and folded his hands on the table, “after I helped their elders find peace, I tried proving my word around the Ghost Zone, but only few ghosts accepted my help. I left soon after that failure and began to drift around again. Get a job here, get another one there. Move from place to place, never staying more than a few weeks anywhere. Did what I could to stop ghosts from hurting people and the other way around. Be a neutral ambassador between the two worlds without playing hero. I never did that again, never felt like taking that role upon myself like I used to. It just feels stupid now.” 

It saddened the man to hear, but that was Danny’s choice after all. Feeling that the story was reaching it final end, Nichols leaned forward with growing suspense. 

“And then?” 

Danny clinked his tongue, “then…well, I guess I just stopped care about the human world. Nothing said me anything anymore and as a halfa, most rules didn’t seem to appeal to me anymore. I tried following the new ways of society and blend in, but I never really understood the age group I’m supposed to appear as and people find me strange. Looks at me like I’m from another planet when I can’t understand their slang, or have problems using the newest smartphone. I basically stopped pretending to be anyone or anything and just followed my feet. I ended up at some casino and without thinking I just played up the rest of the money on Valerie’s credit card. They cut it and I shrugged before returning to play again and tried to keep myself out of boredom. When I had played for a time without winning anything and used up a lot of useless numbers of human money I didn’t had on a computer screen, I gave up and wandered the place.” 

Danny frowned and bite his cheek, “I was going to leave before the bouncers found me for overstaying my welcome, but then I came across a piano in the casino’s lounge. I hadn’t seen one in a while and saw that the seat was empty, and sat down. Played a sheet or two. I had forgot all about leaving when two bouncers flanked me and told me to come with them.” 

The halfa just shrugged and snorted unimpressed, “It wasn’t exactly a problem, just annoying. They kept fronting me and telling me how much trouble I was in. That the boss had a beef with me. I just waited for them to look away and phase out of the wall, when the owner of the casino came and took a look at me. He pulled one of the men aside – ‘Kwan’ I think his name is and asked him if I was really as good as the security cameras said. Apparently, he thought I sounded better than the fulltime entertainer they had hired to play ambient music for the guest. They didn’t know I could hear every word, ghost hearing and all that, and came back with the threat that I could pay back the money I owed the place by playing the piano, or get a broken arm and police arrest.” 

“And you chose to work free for the casino,” Nichols concluded and the immortal being nodded carefree. 

“Why not? It kept me occupied, but also – that piano looked exactly the same as the one I had seen in the yeti shamans’ future vision. It was the last of them, so I thought I could play at the NightSky casino and wait till whatever I was meant to do would happen. As you might have guessed, nothing really happened, other than me playing for a bunch of guest in the lounge and sleep in the daytime on a futon in the basement. It’s not as bad as it sounds.” 

Danny smiled a bit, “I went up to work when a bunch of officers suddenly pushed us all up against the wall and told me and the staff to stay put. One of the officers took my ID and cheeked it. Discovered that it was fake and pushed me into a car.” 

“And then we took you in as a witness for a crime you didn’t see,” Nichols said and Danny nodded with a humorless smirk. 

“And you probably know more about that part than me. There you have it. End of story.” 

“End of story?” he asked and received a firm nod. 

“End of story.” 

The silence that followed gave Danny time to realize he was going to go back to that piano tonight and return to his meaningless life. Something he hadn’t been able to shake of him for years and without much else to do, he might as well go back to wait at the piano. 

Nichols on the other hand, used the little gap to take in what would probably be the most lifechanging story of his own existence. 

Part of him felt like thanking the half-ghost for opening his eyes like this, while he still had a bad taste in his mouth from all the new information he would have to take with him to the grave. 

The thought almost seemed breathtaking. How was he going to go one with his life after this? Pretend like it never happened? What was he supposed to do? Forget about Danny? 

No. Danny didn’t deserve that. 

The kid didn’t deserve such a fate. Not on Warren Nichols’ watch. 

"Well," Nichols stated with a grunt and stood up to end the mute conversation at the table, "a deal is a deal. I liked your story, so you’re free to go, kiddo." 

Danny slowly stood up, hid his disappointment well, "sure. I'll see you around I gues–" 

"Your jacket and stuff are in a box in my office. I'll go grab it and you can go to my car outside – it’s the old sedan with the silver lining." 

Danny send him a surprised look and Nichols raised a humored brow, "aw, come on, Danny. After all that bragging about having the voice of an angel and living in fame as a singer, do you really believe I would just let you waltzes out of here without listening to a performance at least once?" 

Danny was still dumbstruck as he followed the cop out of the interrogation room and Nichols couldn't help from grinning, as he adjusted his wrinkled shirt and pistol strap and grabbed his beige coat and hat. 

He might be an old idiot, but he still had it in him to make a suspect leave these doors speechless with awe. 

The ride to the casino was in Danny’s opinion a lot more comfortable than the ride to the station and Nichols did what he could to turn up the seat heater, play some old CD’s from his youth and keep 

Danny occupied with small talk. Danny seemed to appreciate this, almost desperate to not giving up on the man and dived into the conversation about everything and nothing with eager. 

Nichols was already shaping the idea of inviting Danny to his home, as he parked outside the casino. Giving the kid a place to stay and a solid purpose in life. He decided to keep it to himself until Danny’s job for the night was over and surprise him with the offer. 

They continued to talk as they left the car and as he watched Danny walk up to the front doors, he could already tell that Danny hated the place and decided that it was time for Danny to be saved by someone else. 

Nichols greeted the officer at the door and explained Danny’s situation quickly, before leading him in. Danny, who knew the building, led them to the lounge where most of the casino’s guests had assembled, now that the investigation kept them from playing or leaving the building. 

Most of the guests looked annoyed or bored, after having been kept here almost the entire night and Nichols nodded to some of his fellow officers. 

Danny had barely stepped inside the softly lighted lounge, before a man in an expensive looking suit marched up to him with a grim expression. 

"What the fuck is your deal, Fenton!? Get up on that piano before I have the police arrest you send you the bill for the magician I had to replace you with!” 

Before Danny could open his mouth to either apologize or talk back, Nichols stepped in with a calm smile and laid his hand on the man’s shoulder. 

“Now, now, that’s no way to treat an employee,” he said and continued to smile, even though the man looked as if he was going to call the cops on Nichols, “especially one that’s being kept against his will with threats and without an employment contract or payed minimum wage – something most judges would take as ‘slavery’ and find it against the civil law of the state. Something that’s not only frown upon, but punishable by imprisonment for at least 20 years.” 

The man paled a bit and Nichols lifted his beige trench coat to flash his badge and pistol, not letting any doubt that he could arrest the man right now if he wanted to. 

“Of course,” the manager replied slowly and swallowed a lump, “I apologize, there’s no need for that – Fenton, the guests could use some music if you please and sir, maybe you would like to relax in the bar after such a long night? All on the house of course.” 

Nichols smirked at Danny, who returned it with a mute “thanks”. They both waited till the manager had removed himself with stiff steps, before Danny turned to the officer with a light smile. 

“I guess things will return to normalcy after tonight,” Danny said with a sad smile, trying not to show, but failed miserably, “thanks for helping me out and…well everything.” 

“Listening to your life’s tale was no bother, Danny. I should be the one thanking you,” Nichols replied, keeping his plans to himself and patted the immortal’s shoulder comforting, “I’ll be here till you’re finish your round for tonight. Making sure you get away safely for my own conscious sake, deal?” 

“Deal,” Danny smiled before walking up to the piano, while the officer took a seat at the bar to get his free martini. 

While waiting for his drink to be made, he turned in the chair to watch Danny set up the mic beside the piano and sit down to begin his job. 

Danny adjusted his seat a bit and put on the earplug laying on the piano’s blank lid with a swiftness that revealed he had done this routine for some time. 

Nichols followed the direction of Danny’s head and found that the manager was sitting in a private area with his peers, talking into a headset, probably giving all his employees orders via earplugs. 

Danny nodded at something he was told and started to play a slow melody. 

The officer at the bar listened with a little smile and turned to take the drink the bartender was offering him. Catching his own reflection in the mirror behind the bar in the process. 

His sharp eyes seemed brighter than ever, but that might just be the soft light and he scratched the short brown hair with a hint of grey covering his scalp. 

He really needed to visit a hairdresser one of these days. Not only were his stubs getting out of control, the hair in the back was beginning to tickle his neck. 

_Overtime-look_ , he’s father had used to call it when Nichols had caught his old man checking himself out in the bathroom mirror after a long week. Just like his senior, he took had inherited the Nichols families large build and jaw. 

But not his son – probably another reason he shouldn’t try and force the life as a cop down on Rick’s shoulders. 

When he returned home tonight, his family would surely think he had been replaced with a look-a-like man. The Nichols before tonight would never had brought home a stranger out of pity or allowed his son to follow his dreams of becoming an artist. 

Perhaps they would prefer him new I better. Nichols knew he did. 

The man in the bar mirror was too old, to not make a change for the better. By the song of a piano key opening up for a song, turned his chair around as the voice of an immortal began to sing.

   
 

  
_“Feeling my way through the darkness_  
_Guided by a beating heart_  
_I can't tell where the journey will end_  
_But I know where to start.”_

   
 

Nichols frowned by the melancholic tone Danny’s voice had taken and watched as the man almost seemed to transform before his eyes. 

Not a physical transformation, as in change of hair, cloth or eyes color – the change seemed almost to be in time. As he sang, a new expression crept into his handsome face and erased the defeatist, who had taken the seat just a second before. 

As the immortal spilled his voice and soul into the song, time seemed to have stopped and started to turn before the officer’s very eyes. 

Years of headship and pain melted away until only a young boy was left behind the piano. Nichols felt a slight sting of happiness by the sight of the hopeful and lively boy before him. 

Not one person in the lounge seemed to pay the entertainer much interest, too busy as they were with carrying on with their mundane lives and concentrated on drinks, money, sex and gossip. 

But Nichols saw him. He saw Danny Fenton’s life play before him.

   
 

  
_"They tell me I'm too young to understand_  
_They say I'm caught up in a dream_  
_Well life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes_  
_Well that's fine by me.”_

   
 

A middle-aged, but beautiful woman with a sorrowful face and hair like the red fall, glided slowly across the scene to stand by her little son at the piano with a wistful expression and was joined by a young girl, with a lively face and clever eyes. 

She kissed her little brother’s cheek and the boy returned it with a look of young devotion, only young men, who take their family’s safety into their own hand can make.

   
 

  
_"So wake me up when it's all over_  
_When I'm wiser and I'm older_  
_All this time I was finding myself_  
_And I didn't know I was lost.”_

   
 

Two teenagers joined the young man at the stage to stand behind at him at the piano. 

The dark-skinned boy with the glasses laughed at something only they would understand and the girl with the long black hair smiled secretive at the singing teenager she loved in her own strange ways. 

All three of them shared the same innocence and blameless believe in a future ahead of them, none of them could imagine the horrors of.

   
 

  
_"I tried carrying the weight of the world_  
_But I only have two hands_  
_Hope I get the chance to travel the world_  
_But I don't have any plans.”_

   
 

Now a grown man with the scars of a soldier, Danny’s tone grew raw and added more light keys to the play. 

A woman in a shining dress and headfeather laid herself to rest on the piano lid. Her painted lips mimed his heavy words, as she glided down to walk around him with a light hand running through his hair. Her own slowly turning blue, as it almost seemed like it was burning. 

Danny frowned at his own play and scrunched his brow together with a hard edge to his voice.

   
 

  
_"Wish that I could stay forever this young_  
_Not afraid to close my eyes_  
_Life's a game made for everyone_  
_And love is the prize.”_

   
 

A young woman in jeans sharing the same features as the tired old man singing to her, hugged him from behind and he returned her smile with one of his own wrinkled ones. 

A mature dark-skinned woman with self-assured steps, took a seat beside him and pressed the high keys after his silent instruction. They all shared a knowing glance and Danny widened his grin as his grandniece tousled his white hair and her wife smiled at them.

   
 

  
_"So wake me up when it's all over_  
_When I'm wiser and I'm older_  
_All this time I was finding myself_  
_And I didn't know I was lost.”_

   
 

Now an old being with hunched back, thin shaking limbs and white turfs of fragile hair to match the pale blue eyes that had seems too much, the old man Danny turned snakingly his head to find a young child beside him on the bench. 

The blond boy smiled up at him with crooked front teeth and freckles of youth. Placed his small pale hands in-between the old man’s and helped him press the right keys. 

A silent gleam of gratitude in the old man’s eyes. Lifting their senility and blindness a second to be reminded of what it meant to be this young, even as the child turned pale and his hair green.

   
 

  
_"So wake me up when it's all over_  
_When I'm wiser and I'm older_  
_All this time I was finding myself_  
_And I didn't know I was lost....”_

   
 

Nichols blinked as the song ended and saw that the thirty something looking Danny Fenton was back behind the piano. 

Nichols felt the lump grow in his chest and dried his eyes, knowing that he could never be the same after this. 

The times of happy memory and small gleams of hope seemed too far apart for the man now reseated at the piano, the perfect youth hiding all the disappointments and wasted dreams no person should have to bear alone underneath. 

Danny smiled a wistful smile as he ended the piece to fait out into a slow key. Took up a new melody and turned it into simple atmospheric music. 

Seemingly unaware of the shredded skins of years he had just spilled on the scene and shades he had revealed to the world. Unaware of the open scars and burning smiles, he just had given back to an unforgiven world without a care for the cracks of his soul. 

Nichols caught his blue eyes and smiled, hoping that he somehow could show him how proud, how honored he was to be part of his story. 

Danny smiled back with a gleam that shouldn’t be possible to express with such a young face and the human by the bar promised himself to never doubt in the simple beauteous shadows and unseen creatures of the world again. 

He doubted he could now that he had seen true immortality. 

Danny continued to play the slow piano piece, something Nichols suspected he was to do for a couple of minutes in between each song and took a sip of his martini. Hummed as he found it was made with more expensive liquors than he was used to. 

Not that he was complaining. 

He would grab a couple of more drinks on the casino’s bill, kill some time in the bar ‘till Danny was done for the night. Make Danny tell his boss, that he could start looking for a paid entertainer, ‘cause Danny wasn’t going to come back in the evening. 

His wife would probably ask a lot of questions when he came home with promille breath and a stranger by the arm, but he doubted she would deny Danny the bed in the guestroom for the night. 

When the morning came, Nichols would take a long talk with her and cook up some sob story to go over with Danny later and get him settled. 

Danny would probably refuse his hospitality, but Nichols wasn’t going to send him back into a world that didn’t care for him. Danny needed a place to heal, somewhere he could get back on his feet and hope to love the world again. 

Somewhere people knew him and accepted him. 

With those plans in mind, the old cop took a bigger sip of his drink and almost spat it the next second, as the empty barstool behind him suddenly was occupied by a man. 

A man who seemed to have popped out of the free air. 

The older gentleman didn’t seem to have noticed Nichols’ little choke and the cop hurried to act as nothing and turned to stare at the mirror behind the bar. Watching the reflection of the man beside him in secret. 

The profile of the man turned as the man’s eyes kept fixated on the scene and an intensely light fueled the midnight blue eyes. 

Just as the rest of the guests in the lounge, he was dressed stylishly in a well-tailored suit with crisp red handkerchief and tie – but unlike the rest of the place, Nichols didn’t doubt that the man’s cloths were the real deal. 

No copy crap or lookalike fabric here. 

Despite being a man acting as a person in his 40’s, not a misplaced wrinkle seemed to grace the aristocratic face or any loose fat on the well-trained body. With his silverfox ponytail and clean shaved goatee, the man was the epitome of the perfection only money could buy. 

Something that hadn’t seem to go past most of the young girls in the bar and mature ladies sitting around in the lounge. 

With a look like this, Nichols didn’t doubt that the man could be a playboy if he wanted, but two things seemed to work against the attention around him. 

First thing was the almost to crucial aura surrounding the man. 

The somewhat inhuman demeanor that seemed to tell all other alfas in the room, that this wasn’t only the place’s greyback with more than a lifetime of winning matches on his name – this was a creature you would be mad to challenge and hope to survive a confrontation with. 

The old cop had only meet a man like this before, as he and the rest of the station once had been forced to take a stand with the possible threat of an underground gangster moving his businesses into town. 

But compared to the man next to him, that criminal now seemed like an overgrown school kid. 

The second thing – and surely the reason none of the women dared to enter his space and get rejected – was the fact that the gentleman only seemed to have eyes for one single person in the entire room. 

And that was the singer by the piano. 

“What can I serve you, sir?” the bartender asked after having worked up his courage to ask – probably afraid that he would be giving an order to complicated for his skills. 

“I’ll take the wine card,” the silver haired man replied with a pompous voice suiting his character and the bartender hurried to get the man what he wanted. 

Nichols decided it was safe to turn around again and tried to act as normal as possible. That simple task almost failed as he stumbled his foot against a big leather bag below his barstool and the man turned his eyes to him faster than a cobra. 

“Sorry, didn’t see your bag there,” Nichols apologized with a grimace he hoped was a smile and removed his foot. 

“No harm done,” the man just replied and pushed the bag further under his own chair, not noting that the push had opened the old lock of the ancient looking Gladstoon bag. 

Nichols swallowed by the sight of the content in its shady belly. 

There had to be at least 1.000.000 dollars’ worth in poker chips in that thing. 

Quickly to pulled his eyes to himself, Nichols’ little gears began to spin by themselves and the missing pieces falling into place one by one. 

The lucky guest winning all the casino’s safe money had never been fortunate in luck – just ghost powers. Power that could overshadow the rest of the table and secure him the winning hand without a sweat. 

Making the trigger of the pistol take all the police attention of him and leave him free to leave the table. All the police’s hard work to find what they believed to be an innocent man, victim for some money-sharks grand plan – all backwards. 

The wagons searching the apartments and streets right now was all being played for a fool. The guest had never left the casino or got kidnapped to some money shark’s torture basement. 

The man had been walking amongst them as an invisible ghost and Nichol found himself shaking from the knowledge of sitting so close to this creature. 

This devil in human disguise everyone in here seemed to sense the danger of, but couldn’t find the understanding to voice. 

The first halfa and judge of the Unworld. 

Vlad Masters. 

“Here it is, sir” the bartender proclaimed and handed the wine card over the disk. 

Masters took it without a word and started skimming the option of wine to find something to his likening. From his perfect frown to judge, he wasn’t impressed by the selection of the house. 

“I’m afraid they’re not much for wine here,” Nichols heard himself say and felt a drop of sweat roll down his back, as the man turned his attention to him, “but, uhm, I can recommend the martini.” 

“Really?” Masters replied with a charming voice, probably masking the fact that he was weighting Nichols’ character and finding him to light, “playing here often?” 

“Oh, no,” Nichols hurried to clarify, “first time here – I’m not a guest, just an officer in need of a break while my shift is covered. We have been working all night and the manager serves free drinks while we investigate the money loss this casino has suffered.” 

Masters grunted and seemed to take Nichols in a higher regard, now that he knew he was a man of the law and turned to the bartender, “then I’ll have what the officer is having – but remember to ground it with gin and not vodka. Give it a ten second stir while glancing it with a new bottle of vermouth.” 

The guy paled a bit, but did as he was told and found a new bottle to open. Nichols whistled and now knew that Danny hadn’t spared his description of the man. Masters sure knew what he wanted. 

“Acquired taste for an acquired man,” he joked and received a light smirk in return. 

Nichols took a large sip of his own martini to build up his courage and licked his lips, “so, mister…?” 

“Vlad,” the other replied with a hint of pride and exchanged the traditional handshake, but not without removing his hand quickly again, as if he didn’t want to catch any bourgeois germs from the cop, “Vlad Masters.” 

“Warren Nichols,” he replied and wondered why a man like Masters would need this place’s money, when he seemed as wealthy as ever, “so, Vlad. Come here to gamble?” 

“In some sense, yes,” Vlad replied sleek as an eel and refocused his eyes on the singing man by the stage, “tell me, Nichols, do you believe people can change?” 

“I guess,” he retorted slowly and watched the other carefully, “but some people never seems to do. I have seen lots of people declaring to stop doing crimes, violence or drink, but always falling back in. I’m afraid changing to the better, just isn’t a nature all people are born with.” 

Was he going too far? He hoped not – Danny might like him, but If this living god of destruction caught any sign of him knowing about halfas (not to mention the entire life history of said halfas) Nichols wasn’t stupid enough to even try and run. 

He would be dead before he could even take his last breath. 

Masters didn’t seem to have noticed anything and accepted the martini he was handed with a longing look in the direction of the scene, “then how about forgiveness? Do you believe anything can be forgiven if the effort to make it right is great enough?” 

Nichols rotated his drink with a closed face, “I believe there’s things that can be forgiven and some that cannot. But it depends on the person you have hurt. Forgiveness is theirs to give, not the other way around.” 

A hardness formed around the halfa’s mouth and for a second, the cop feared he had revealed himself, but then Masters sighed and drowned the glass. 

“Then wish me luck.” 

Nichols inhaled as the man walked away and moved his way to the scene. Danny was still deep in his art and unknowing of the company he soon would get – which just made this more exciting and made Nichols hurried to get down to the table where the manager was seated. 

“Hey! What are you –?” the casino owner protested, as Nichols ripped the headset of his head, but shortly after kept shut, as Nichols pressed his badge up in his face. 

“Shut up, this is police business,” he hissed and listened with held breath.

   
 

Danny pressed one of the deep keys to work his piece over in a more romantic atmosphere and sighed quietly, in order not to be heard in the mic by the piano. 

He had a job to keep after all – or had he? He was pretty much out of money when he left this place tonight, but he could just go back to crash random places for a single night for free. Like church attics and barns. 

Maybe the countryside would be good for him. 

A change of scenery as they said. 

He asked himself again for the third time that night, why he had bothered telling his entire life story to a stranger. Well. Nichols wasn’t a stranger anymore, but still. 

He doubted telling Nichols about his life would change much – and there was no risk the man would tell anyone either. Who would believe him anyway? 

But something about reliving his worst nightmares and moment of glory, had pulled some strings inside of him he had forgotten he possessed. It had reminded him why he was running in the first place. 

And from who. 

“Hello, Daniel.” 

He didn’t miss the key on the piano or show any sign of being taken by surprise, but on the inside, he was a hole other story. 

Something during the night in the interrogation room, had slowly, but steady begin to awaking in him and it had begun to stretch its wings, that had been waiting in the deps ever since he opened his mouth to spill his soul to the policeman. 

“I told you not to hunt me anymore,” he retorted quietly, believing they were talking privately – both of then unknowingly eavesdropped by a certain police officer at the other end of the lounge. 

“I know,” Vlad replied with a regretful tone and had the other sending him a glance, “I’m afraid I wasn’t strong enough to resist the urge more than thirty years.” 

“Has it really been that long?” Danny asked and tried to remember what year they were in, “it feels like yesterday.” 

Vlad nodded and took a seat next to him. Daniel allowed it as he moved to the side without a word and kept playing, now with Vlad watching him longingly. 

In the quiet mind, Vlad couldn’t help but worshipping the halfa beside him. The man was the picture of his parents, with his father’s tint and mother’s figure. The beautiful haunting of Vlad’s past, as well as the stunning present and promise of the future. 

If Daniel would allow them to have such a thing, that is. 

Sensing that Vlad was doing that thing where he was eating Danny up with his eyes without knowing it, Danny inhaled and took up to mention the elephant in the room. 

“Vlad,” he sighed and decided to say what he had wanted since he left the station, “I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done. I just want you to know that in the end…I understand.” 

“I know you do,” Vlad retorted with a remorseful expression, that soon turned to admiration as he met the other’s eyes, “you’ve never been the bigger man of us, Danny, but you always were the good one. Something I can’t do after or hope to phantom how you do. It’s a mystery to me how you can still stand tall on your own, while I crumble in your absence. I suppose that’s one of the reasons why I can’t stop loving you.” 

Danny opens his mouth, but Vlad stopped him, “100 years, Daniel. It’s been 100 years since I confessed my feeling for you.” 

Danny felt unsaid things fight to leave his closed mouth, as the man rose to leave and buttoned the last button on his jacket with distracted eyes. Looking anywhere but Danny and dropped a bag looking _suspiciously_ a lot like Danny’s old Gladstone bag by his feet. 

Had Vlad seriously kept that old antic all these years? 

“What’s that?” Danny asked and the man addressed him without meeting his eyes. 

“Money for you to live on for a time,” he said, failed to mention that fact that he won the money out of boredom while waiting for Danny to show up at his job. 

“Do with it as you please, I won’t hunt you anymore. The things I have done to you takes away all the right I have to do so and I am sorry for the pain I have cost you,” Vlad continued and then turned to him with an unreadable expression, “but if you still have it in your heart to accept my apology and forgive me…I’ll stay if you wish me to.” 

Danny stared up at him, trying to understand exactly what the man had just admitted. 

A war of emotions and imaginary possibilities tried to fight for his attention at once, but the only thing that ran clean though was the command in his earpiece, as his managers voice broke through with a growl. 

_“Start playing again, you idiot!”_

Danny looked up to find the manager scowling at him from his bout, where he was trying to get control of his hair and get the headset back on his head. Not noticing the policeman sneaking back to the bar to get away from the two bouncers coming to the manager’s aid. 

“I understand,” Vlad said and walked down from the scene. 

Danny turned his head back to him and opened his mouth…but then closed it again. 

He closed his eyes and started playing again. Ignored the sight of the man’s back slowly moving away from him and breaking something fragile between the two of them. Danny scrunched his brows, forced himself to see reason. 

Told himself to stop pretending anything would change, even if Vlad had just apologized to him and possible meant it. Told himself that it was over for them, had been for years. 

That it was time to grow up for once in his life and take the hard – but necessary choice. 

To stop dreaming.

   
 

Nichols sighed in relief as he retired back to his barstool and out of the bouncer’s reach. 

The rest of the nightshift had arrived in the lounge as well and the officers and staff took each a seat to get a moment of rest before they were on again with new orders. 

Nichols greeted them to show the bouncer’s he was in a safe zone they couldn’t touch him in and smirked at their sour faces. 

His only regret was the fact that he hadn’t gotten Danny’s final answer to Vlad, but by the looks of it, something would seem he had refused the older halfa. 

Vlad was halfway across the floor before the tables and guests with a closed expression, when he suddenly stopped in the middle of the dance floor. Inhaled and pulled a package out of his suit jacket. 

Both Nichols and Danny watched as the man ripped the wrapping of the package with an angry scowl and revealed it was a stack of paper. 

A stack of worn green pages. 

None of them had to look closer to question the fact that this was the complete journal of Sojourn, but what was questionable, was the man’s sanity, as he ignited the entire stack in a red flame from his hands. 

The nearby seated guests gasped in surprise and outrage, while other’s cheered, thinking it was a magician show. 

The burning pile of legendary pages left the halfa’s hands and landed on the floor, where the fire continued to eat up page by page and turn them to ashes. 

Danny had forgotten all about playing, just stared at the outrageous display before him and tried to get his mind around the fact that Vlad Masters just had set fire to the one thing he had used his entire immortal life to obtain. 

Even though it couldn’t give him the key to the Elsewhereness, the journal was still full of secrets and information, that could help obtain world domination with some cleverness and imagination. 

And now that to had gone up in flames. 

Danny found Vlad’s eyes as the man turned around and found that the man was smiling. Not in happiness or triumph. Just the simple expression of a man who had given up on an obsession and helped himself to a painless life. 

A meaningless life. 

Danny felt misery by the sight. 

Vlad had nothing to live for now. He had burned all his bridges behind him to die out in the shadows and left himself in the darkness without a light to follow. 

The man seemed to know this as well and turned his back on him, as he went to leave the same way he’d first came into Danny life. 

Incredible brutal. 

Danny felt the last string of his heart stretch after the man before it finally snapped and left him disconnected. Felt the last chain connecting them fall and leave him colder than he had for years. 

The flame he had despised and cherished in secret smother to nothing and disappear. 

He couldn’t help the tears falling from his cheeks. 

Some of the police officers was working their way up to Vlad through the crowd, to find out what the fire was about and stop the burning heap at the floor in front of the scene – and to Danny’s inner pain by the sight, Vlad didn’t even seem to care if he was going to be arrested or not. 

He had given up. 

_“Ladies and Gentlemen?”_ Danny asked into the mic, as he began to play a piece he knew by heart and had everyone turning their heads to him. 

He grinned awkward and dried his eyes on his shoulder with a cleared throat, _“hey, I know I’m not supposed to be more than just some atmospheric noise to you, but I’ll like to tell you all a little secret of mine. A story actually.”_

He laid more into the piece and ignored his manager’s angry voice in his ear, as he sniffed and tried getting his voice under control. 

As he had hoped, Vlad had stopped moving and stood now in the middle of the lounge, still with his back to Danny, but still nonetheless. 

Danny nodded and began to talk in his desperation – anything to undo this course the world had send him on. Took it upon himself to finally change his story. 

Danny knew what he wanted to be now. 

And that was to be with his other half. 

_“There’s this person of mine I like to tell you about. It’s a person I once had a teen crush on,”_ Danny told into the mic and smiled at the guests giggling or snorting on his behalf, _“embarrassing, I know. Especially taking the huge age difference.”_

Nichols watched with raised brows how the officers who had been seconds from getting to Vlad, suddenly stopped as if commanded with eyes flashing red for a second and stood stiff like statues, while the man stared ahead with widened eyes. 

Then turned back to the scene with burning questions in his eyes. 

Danny smiled at the light smiles some of the guests was sending him, probably knowing what he was talking about, and continued, _“the thing is. This person turned out to like me to – something I knew was totally wrong and tried to stop, but my friend here was, and still are, the most stubborn of us and forced it to work. Not something that end well.”_

Danny exhaled and send Vlad a smile before concentrating on his music again. Removing his earpiece to be free of the manager’s demands. 

_“And people always tell me to stay away from this person and stay angry for what they did – but ya know what? Us? We’re not people, we’re something that can’t be comprehended and I’m not afraid to say that there’s been too much water under the bridge for me to still have a grudge. That person has just proven that to me and I’m not running from a promise. Even though that promise it’s older than any of you people in here.”_

Vlad exhaled like he had held his breath, while the guests smiled at what they believed was a semi stand up show from Danny’s side. 

Not getting the severity in the situation or the invisible restorations of stings forming between two people. 

_“This song I’m going to sing now, is for this person and I think it hits the spot when it comes to what ’us’ means,”_ Danny said and reached the voice part of the song, _“Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the man who crushed on me so **hard** it lasted for hundred years. The man I’m no longer afraid to say I love.”_

The guests turned around to find the “man” the song was dedicated to and some of the women cooed, as they found Vlad standing in the middle of the lounge floor. Staring up at Danny, like he was the only thing that mattered in the universe. 

He probably was.

   
 

_“Strongest taste_  
_Loudest drop_  
_Head is filled_  
_The thought, unlocked.”_

 

_“Strongest taste_  
_Loudest drop_  
_Head is filled.”_

 

_“You'd be thirteen_  
_I'd be thirty-five_  
_Gone to find a place for us to hide_  
_Be together but alone_  
_As the need for it has grown.”_

   
 

Very few of the guest had ever heard the song before and those who caught the age reference part, gawked behind hands and send looks between Vlad and Danny  


Making their own conclusions.  
But neither of the two men seemed to care if the guests had gotten the deeper meaning of these words or not. Danny broke his own heart apart for them all to see and Vlad watched him with the same dedication as a worshipper of a god.  


Took in the sight of this halfa and man he had more love for than he could express. 

   
 

_“A cave or a shed_  
_A car or a bed_  
_A hole in the ground_  
_Or a burial mound_  
_A bush or a tree_  
_Or the Aegean sea will do for me.”_

   
 

Danny looked up from the piano and send Vlad a loving smile, as he opened his mouth the sing the next – making a lot of the females giggle and men laugh.

   
 

_“I can say that you look pretty_  
_You turn my legs into spaghetti_  
_You set my heart on fire.”_

   
 

Some men would probably have found themselves offended by this, Vlad didn’t seem to care the least. He wasn’t _most_ men and couldn’t care less about the opinion of humans. 

For all he believed, there was only he and Daniel in this room. 

That seemed to have done it for the manager and he send two of his bouncers up to stop the homosexual show. The two men didn’t get that far as they both seemed to have become stopped by some unseen force and blinked as their eyes flashed red for a second. 

Now standing side by side with the paralyzed officers.

   
 

_“For you I found a vent_  
_In the bottom of a coal mine_  
_Just enough space for your hands in the inside_  
_If you go_  
_Do let me know.”_

 

_“You'd be thirteen_  
_I'd be thirty-five_  
_Gone to find a place for us to hide.”_

 

_“A den or a dessert_  
_Perhaps an ink squirt_  
_A cellar, a wishing well, a war_  
_Or a guarantee will do for me.”_

 

_“For you I found a cell_  
_On the top floor of a prison_  
_Just enough space for you to fit your feet in_  
_If you go_  
_Do let me know.”_

   
 

Danny smiled a smile so raw it was almost painful to watch and Nichols turned his attention to Vlad, to find that the man had been consumed by a similar expression. 

Consumed by the emotions he had been ready to give up for the sake of Danny’s happiness without him in his life. 

The knowledge that he hadn’t lost him seemed to be more than he could bear, and Danny seemed to understand this as well as he sang for the man – and the man alone.

   
 

_“For you I found a cell_  
_On the top floor of a prison_  
_Just enough space for you to fit your feet in_  
_If you go_  
_Please let me know.”_

 

_“I come running with a heart on fire…”_

   
 

“For fucks sake!” the manager yelled and jumped out of his booth to take the problem into his own hand. Only to be stopped by Nichols who had moved up to him to stick a leg out for him to trip over. 

“Ups,” he said and continued to watch as Danny spilled out his love to the man, who had caused him both pain, regret and suffering most of his life. 

But also granted him true love. 

Danny ended the song with a hard note and to everyone’s shock and the humans’ gasps – he grabbed the big leather bag and jumped over the piano. Ran down the steps to the ground floor with one goal in mind. 

Vlad, who had awoken from the spell, forgot all about the humans and made all the overshadowed humans wake up from their sleep, as he reached his arm out for his soulmate. 

Danny jumped over the two bouncers trying to get him and stunned the officers behind Vlad, by throwing the Gladstone bag into their unprepared arms. 

Sending hundreds of poker chips flying across the room and scatter across the floor and tables. 

Seeing the free money, the casino guests lost their cool and threw themselves unto the floor to get as much of the money as possible. Making the officers and casino staff forget all about the two lovebirds. 

Vlad’s outstretched arms was accepted, as his other half jumped into them and the two of them reunited in a breathtaking passionate kiss, none of them caring about the world around them. 

They had never been a part of it to begin with. 

“I love you,” Danny said breathless and had the other lost at words. 

Vlad recovered by simply pulled him into a tight embrace, before the man formed the biggest grin Nichols had ever seen and grabbed Danny’s hand, to drag him out of the chaos and whisk him away to freedom. 

Nichols couldn’t help but laugh at the scene that was the sight before him and picked up his glass of free martini from the bar disk to a toast, as they two immortals ran out the door hand in hand. 

Nichols shook his head and emptied his glass in one turn, dried his mouth and took the car home. 

Maybe his wife was still waiting up for him.

**Author's Note:**

> I will post a new chapter every friday


End file.
